Robot arm apparatus and robot arm control method

ABSTRACT

There is provided is a robot arm apparatus including an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; and a drive control unit that controls driving of the arm unit by causing each joint unit to be driven cooperatively. The drive control unit uses relative position information of a reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on a state of the arm unit and distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and the reference position, to control the driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/119,671, filed on Aug. 17, 2016, which is a National Stage of PCT/JP2015/053876, filed on Feb. 12, 2015, which claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2014-038654, filed in the Japan Patent Office on Feb. 28, 2014. Each of the above-referenced applications is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates to a robot arm apparatus, a robot arm control method, and a program.

BACKGROUND ART

Recently, in the medical field, methods of using a balance arm (hereinafter also called a support arm) having an imaging device provided on the front edge of the arm to carry out various medical procedures such as surgeries while observing an image of the surgical site captured by the imaging device have been proposed. By using a balance arm, the affected area may be observed consistently from a desired direction, making it possible to carry out medical procedures efficiently.

On the other hand, when observing a surgical site with an imaging device, there is demand to be able to observe the surgical site from different distances and different angles, while keeping the viewpoint locked onto the surgical site. To address such demand, technology that causes the imaging device to perform a tilting movement centered on a point on the optical axis, referred to as a pivot operation, is being developed. With a pivot operation, an operation is realized in which the imaging device is kept pointed at a certain point in three-dimensional space (the pivot center point), and the imaging device is made to move over the surface of a cone whose apex lies at the certain point. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a medical equipment support apparatus (balance arm) that realizes a pivot operation of an imaging device by appropriately joining together multiple link mechanisms with a coupling mechanism that couples with these link mechanisms.

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

Patent Literature 1:

JP 2004-105726A SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

However, with the technology described in Patent Literature 1, a pivot operation is realized by the mechanical structure of the link mechanisms. In order to realize a pivot operation with a mechanical structure, the structure of the arm unit is complicated, and there is a possibility of the arm unit being heavy and having a large amount of inertia when driven.

Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes a new and improved robot arm apparatus, robot arm control method, and program enabling further improvement in user convenience.

Solution to Problem

According to the present disclosure, there is provided a robot arm apparatus including: an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; and a drive control unit that controls driving of the arm unit by causing each joint unit to be driven cooperatively. The drive control unit uses relative position information of a reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on a state of the arm unit and distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and the reference position, to control the driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

According to the present disclosure, there is provided a robot arm control method including: acquiring a state of an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; acquiring distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and a reference position; and using relative position information of the reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on the state of the arm unit and the distance information, to cause each joint unit to be driven cooperatively based on the arm state and thereby control driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

According to the present disclosure, there is provided a program causing a processor of a computer to realize: a function of acquiring a state of an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; a function of acquiring distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and a reference position; and a function of using relative position information of the reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on the state of the arm unit and the distance information, to cause each joint unit to be driven cooperatively based on the arm state and thereby control driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

According to the present disclosure, based on the state of an arm unit while an imaging unit is pointed at a reference position, the reference position being a certain point in real space, and the distance between the imaging unit and the reference position while the imaging unit is pointed at the reference position, the relative position of the reference position with respect to the arm unit is computed. Subsequently, based on the computed relative position, driving of the arm unit is controlled so that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging unit. In this way, driving control in which the arm unit is driven so that the imaging unit always points at the reference position is realized by an easier operation of the user operating the arm unit to point the imaging unit at the reference position. Consequently, user convenience when setting the reference position may be improved. Also, such driving control of the arm unit is realized by whole body cooperative control, in which each of the joint units are drive cooperatively based on the state of the arm unit. In this way, as a result of the driving of the arm unit being controlled with higher user operability by what is known as force control, the user is able to operate the arm unit more easily, and user convenience may be improved further.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present disclosure as described above, further improvement in user convenience becomes possible. Note that the effects described above are not necessarily limited, and along with or instead of the effects, any effect that is desired to be introduced in the present specification or other effects that can be expected from the present specification may be exhibited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a function block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for illustrating an overview of a reference position derivation method according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for describing an application example of using a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure for a medical purpose.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an external appearance of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional diagram schematically illustrating a state in which an actuator of a joint unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is cut along a cross section passing through a rotary axis.

FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating a state of a torque sensor illustrated in FIG. 6 viewed in an axis direction of a driving shaft.

FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram illustrating another exemplary configuration of a torque sensor applied to the actuator illustrated in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for describing ideal joint control according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for describing a pivot movement that is a specific example of an arm movement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram for describing a purpose of motion and a constraint condition for implementing the pivot movement illustrated in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an external appearance of a modified example having a redundant degree of freedom in a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a hardware configuration of a robot arm apparatus and a control device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT(S)

Hereinafter, (a) preferred embodiment(s) of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the appended drawings. In this specification and the drawings, elements that have substantially the same function and structure are denoted with the same reference signs, and repeated explanation is omitted.

The description will proceed in the following order.

1. Investigation of robot arm apparatus 2. Configuration of robot arm control system 3. Robot arm control method 3-1. Overview of robot arm control method 3-2. Processing procedure of robot arm control method

4. Modifications

4-1. Modification regarding operation of pointing imaging unit at reference position 4-2. Modification regarding acquisition of distance information about distance between imaging unit and reference position 5. Whole body cooperative control 5-1. Review of medical robot arm apparatus 5-2. Embodiment of present disclosure 5-2-1. External appearance of robot arm apparatus 5.2.2. Generalized inverse dynamics 5-2-2-1. Virtual force calculating process 5-2-2-1. Actual force calculating process 5-2-3. Ideal joint control 5-2-4. Configuration of robot arm control system 5-2-5. Specific example of purpose of motion 5-3. Processing procedure of robot arm control method 5-4. Summary of robot arm apparatus according to whole body cooperative control 6. Hardware configuration

7. Supplement

In this specification, first, in <1. Investigation of robot arm apparatus>, to further clarify the present disclosure, an overview of a robot arm apparatus will be given, and the background leading up to the inventors' conceiving of the present disclosure will be described. Herein, in a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, in a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by what is known as force control, a target object is observed using an imaging device provided on an arm unit of the robot arm apparatus. Also, at this point, a reference point which is a certain point in real space is derived, and the driving of the arm unit is controlled so as to perform a pivot operation of moving over the surface of a cone whose apex lies at the reference position in a state in which the imaging device is pointed at the reference position. Note that in the following, the reference position for the pivot operation is also called the pivot center point. In <2. Configuration of robot arm control system> and <3. Robot arm control method>, a configuration of a robot arm control system and a control method of a robot arm apparatus for realizing such control will be described in detail.

Herein, a pivot operation as discussed above may be realized by computing a control value for controlling the driving the arm unit, under a constraint condition that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging device, for example. In addition, by appropriately changing the constraint condition, it becomes possible to control the arm unit to realize various types of operations, such as a pivot operation in which the imaging device moves over a hemisphere centered on the reference position (that is, a pivot operation in which the distance between the imaging device and the reference position is kept constant), or a locked operation in which the position and the orientation of the arm unit are locked in a certain state (that is, the position and the orientation of the imaging device are locked), for example. Such driving control of a robot arm apparatus based on a constraint condition may be realized by a control technique called whole body cooperative control. Accordingly, in <5. Whole body cooperative control>, a configuration of a control system and a control method for realizing whole body cooperative control will be described. Note that in <5. Whole body cooperative control>, not only driving control for realizing the above pivot operation and locked operation but also whole body cooperative control of a robot arm apparatus will be described from a broad perspective.

Note that in the following description, a robot arm apparatus primarily for medical use will be taken as an example of a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure. However, the present embodiment is not limited to such an example, and is also applicable to other fields, such as industrial use, for example.

<1. Investigation of Robot Arm Apparatus>

First, before describing a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, to further clarify the present disclosure, the background leading up to the inventors' conceiving of the present disclosure will be described.

Generally, a robot apparatus may be made of a multi-link structure in which multiple links are joined to each other by multiple joint units, and by controlling rotational driving in the multiple joint units, the driving of the robot apparatus as a whole is controlled. In such a robot arm apparatus, the arm unit corresponds to the multi-link structure, and the driving of the arm unit as a whole is controlled by the driving of each joint unit.

Here, position control and force control are known as control methods of the robot apparatus and each of the joint units. In position control, for example, a command value such as an angle is provided to an actuator of a joint unit, and driving of the joint unit is controlled according to the command value. Meanwhile, in force control, a target value of force applied to a task target by a whole robot apparatus is given, and driving of a joint unit (for example, torque generated by the joint unit) is controlled such that the force indicated by the target value is implemented.

Generally, most robot apparatuses are driven by position control since it is convenient to control and a system configuration is simple. However, position control is commonly called “hard control” since cannot easily deal with external force flexibly, and position control is not suitable for a robot apparatus performing a task while performing physical interaction (for example, physical interaction with a person) with various external worlds. Meanwhile, force control has a complicated system configuration, but can implement “soft control” of a power order, and thus force control is a control method suitable, particularly, for a robot apparatus performing physical interaction with a person and a control method having excellent usability.

For example, as an example of a robot apparatus applying force control, refer to JP 2010-188471A, which is a prior application by the same applicant as the present applicant of this specification. Patent Literature 1 discloses a robot apparatus that includes a movement mechanism configured with 2 wheels and an arm unit configured with a plurality of joint units, and performs control such that the wheels and the joint units are driven in a cooperative manner as a whole (performs whole body cooperative control).

Meanwhile, in recent years, in the medical field, attempts to use a balance arm in which various medical units (front edge units) are installed at a front edge of an arm unit when various medical procedures (for example, surgery or an examination) are performed have been made. For example, a method in which various imaging devices with imaging functions such as a microscope, an endoscope, or a camera is installed on a front edge of an arm unit of a balance arm as a front edge unit, and a practitioner (a user) performs various medical procedures while observing an image of the medical procedure part captured by the imaging device has been proposed.

However, the balance arm has to be equipped with a counter balance weight (also called a counter weight or a balancer) for maintaining balance of force when the arm unit is moved and thus a device size tends to increase. A device used in a medical procedure has to be small in size since it is necessary to secure a task space for the medical procedure, but it is difficult to meet such a demand in general balance arms being proposed. Further, in the balance arm, only some driving of the arm unit, for example, only biaxial driving for moving the front edge unit on a (two-dimensional) plane is electric driving, and manual positioning by the practitioner or a medical staff therearound is necessary for movement of the arm unit and the front edge unit. Thus, in the general balance arms, it is difficult to secure stability (for example, positioning accuracy of the front edge unit, vibration suppression, and the like) at the time of photography and secure a degree of freedom of observation by which it is possible to observe in various directions, for example, in a state in which a point of view is fixed on a certain part of a patient's body.

Particularly, when observing a surgical site with an imaging device attached to an arm unit, there is demand to be able to observe the surgical site from different distances and different angles, while keeping the viewpoint locked onto the surgical site. Such observation may be realized by causing the imaging device to perform a pivot operation, but performing a pivot operation with a balance arm requires a complex mechanical configuration as described in Patent Literature 1 above, and achieving high operability is difficult.

In light of the above circumstances, as a device to replace a balance arm in the medical field, there is proposed a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by position control in order to perform work more accurately and more quickly. However, in order to more efficiently perform a medical procedure and reduce a burden on a user, high operability enabling more intuitive control of a position or posture of an arm unit and an imaging unit installed as a front edge unit by a user is necessary for driving control of a robot arm apparatus. In a robot arm apparatus in which driving is controlled by position control, it is difficult to meet such a user demand.

Circumstances like the above are not limited to the medical field. For example, in the industrial field, in order to perform work such as product inspection and verifying a product's external appearance, it is conceivable to provide an imaging device on the front edge of the arm unit of a balance arm or a robot arm apparatus, and observe the product with the imaging device. Likewise in such work, if a balance arm or a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by position control is used, there are concerns of increased user burden due to low operability.

Accordingly, there is demand to further reduce the user burden by realizing a robot arm apparatus capable of performing driving control of the arm unit with higher stability and higher operability. Accordingly, the inventors conceived a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by force control in order to enable a further improvement in convenience for the user and a further decrease in user burden. As discussed above, by conducting driving control of the robot arm apparatus 10 with force control, operation of the arm unit that follows the user's intuitions more closely is realized, and high operability may be obtained.

As discussed later in <4. Whole body cooperative control> below, the inventors achieved a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by force control by applying whole body cooperative control using a dynamic system called generalized inverse dynamics as the control technique. Herein, with whole body cooperative control, the driving of the arm unit as a whole is controlled by cooperatively driving each joint unit of the arm unit. Also, the control value for controlling the driving of each joint unit may be computed based on a purpose of motion and a constraint condition set for the arm unit as a whole.

Herein, a constraint condition is a condition on a factor such as position, velocity, or force that acts to limit the motion of the arm unit. For example, by setting a constraint condition that the reference position, which is a certain point in real space, is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging device, the control value of the driving of each joint unit for driving the arm unit so as to realize the constraint condition may be computed. By setting such a constraint condition taking the reference position to be the surgical site of a patient to be observed, the driving of the arm unit may be controlled so that the imaging device always points at the surgical site, thereby making it possible to conduct control that addresses the user's desire to observe the surgical site from different distances and different angle while keeping the perspective locked onto the surgical site.

Herein, since the reference position may be an arbitrary point in real space, in order to set a reference position as the constraint condition, it is necessary to derive the relative position of the reference position with respect to the robot arm apparatus, and cause the robot arm apparatus to recognize that relative position. The derivation of the relative position corresponds to a process of deriving the reference position in reference coordinates that the robot arm apparatus uses to drive the arm unit. Such reference coordinates may be a coordinate system in an internal model possessed by the robot arm apparatus, for example.

However, so far, in a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by force control, an appropriate method for deriving such a reference position has not necessarily been established. Accordingly, in a robot arm apparatus whose driving is controlled by force control, there is demand for a technology that enables easier derivation of a reference position when observing a target object with an imaging device provided on the arm unit. As a result of thorough investigation into technologies for enabling easier derivation of a reference position, the inventors conceived the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure indicated below. Hereinafter, the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

<2. Configuration of Robot Arm Apparatus>

First, a configuration of a robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a function block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1, the robot arm control system 2 according to the present embodiment is equipped with a robot arm apparatus 10, a control device 20, and a display device 30. In the present embodiment, various computations for driving the robot arm apparatus 10 by whole body cooperative control are performed by the control device 20, and the driving of an arm unit of the robot arm apparatus 10 is controlled based on the computational results. Also, an imaging unit 140 discussed later is provided on the arm unit of the robot arm apparatus 10, and an image captured by the imaging unit 140 is displayed on a display screen of the display device 30. Hereinafter, the configuration of the robot arm apparatus 10, the control device 20, and the display device 30 will be described in detail.

The display device 30 displays various kinds of information on the display screen in various formats such as text or an image, and visually notifies the user of the information. In the present embodiment, the display device 30 displays an image captured by the imaging unit 140 of the robot arm apparatus 10 through the display screen. Specifically, the display device 30 includes a function or component such as an image signal processing unit (not illustrated) that performs various kinds of image processing on the image signal acquired by the imaging unit 140 or a display control unit (not illustrated) that performs control such that an image based on the processed image signal is displayed on the display screen. Note that since the configuration of the display device 30 can be similar to a typical display device, detailed description is omitted herein.

The robot arm apparatus 10 includes an arm unit, which is a multi-link structure made up of multiple joint units and multiple links. By driving the arm unit within a movable range, the robot arm apparatus 10 controls the position and the orientation of a front edge unit (in the present embodiment, an imaging unit) provided on the front edge of the arm unit.

Referring to FIG. 6, the robot arm apparatus 10 includes an arm unit 120. Also, the arm unit 120 includes a joint unit 130 and an imaging unit 140.

The arm unit 120 is a multi-link structure made up of multiple joint units 130 and multiple links, and the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled as a result of the driving of each joint unit 130 being controlled. Note that since the function and configuration of the multiple joint units 130 included in the arm unit 120 are similar to each other, FIG. 6 illustrates the configuration of one joint unit 130 as a representative of these multiple joint units 130.

The joint unit 130 rotatably joins links to each other in the arm unit 120, and also drives the arm unit 120 as a result of the rotational driving of the joint unit 130 being controlled by control from the joint control unit 135 discussed later. The joint unit 130 includes a joint driving unit 131, a joint state detecting unit 132, and a joint control unit 135.

The joint control unit 135 is made up of any of various types of processors such as a central processing unit (CPU), for example, and controls the driving of the joint unit 130. Specifically, the arm control unit 110 includes a drive control unit 111, and the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled as a result of the driving of the joint unit 130 is controlled by control from the drive control unit 111. More specifically, the drive control unit 111, by controlling an amount of current supplied to the joint driving unit 131 of the joint unit 130, controls the rotational speed of a motor constituting the joint driving unit 131, and controls the rotational angle and the generated torque in the joint unit 130. Herein, as discussed above, the driving control of the joint unit 130 by the drive control unit 111 may be conducted based on a computational result in the control device 20.

The joint driving unit 131 is a driving mechanism such as a motor constituting an actuator of the joint unit 130. The driving of the joint driving unit 131 rotationally drives the joint unit 130. The driving of the joint driving unit 131 is controlled by the drive control unit 111. For example, a motor constituting the joint driving unit 131 is driven by an amount of current corresponding to an instruction from the drive control unit 111.

The joint state detecting unit 132 detects the state of the joint unit 130. Herein, the state of the joint unit 130 may mean the state of motion of the joint unit 130. For example, the state of the joint unit 130 includes information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, the rotational angular acceleration, and the generated torque of the joint unit 130. In the present embodiment, the joint state detecting unit 132 includes various sensors, such as an encoder and a torque sensor, for example, and is able to detect the rotational angle of the joint unit 130 as well as the generated torque and the external torque of the joint unit 130. The joint state detecting unit 132 transmits the detected state of the joint unit 130 to the control apparatus 20.

The imaging unit 140 is an example of a front edge unit provided on the front edge of the arm unit 120, and has a function of acquiring an image of an imaging target. Specifically, the imaging unit 140 is made up of any of various types of imaging devices, such as a camera or a microscope. For example, the imaging unit 140 is made up of a digital video camera, and is able to acquire an image signal expressing an image of an imaging target. The imaging unit 140 transmits the acquired image signal to the control apparatus 30.

Note that in the robot arm apparatus 10, the imaging unit 140 is provided on the front edge of the arm unit 120, for example. In FIG. 1, the state of the imaging unit 140 being provided on the front edge of the final link through the multiple joint units 130 and multiple links is expressed by schematically illustrating a link between the joint unit 130 and the imaging unit 140. However, in the present embodiment, the part where the imaging unit 140 is provided is not limited to the front edge of the arm unit 120, and it is sufficient for the imaging unit 140 to be provided on some part of the arm unit 120.

The above thus describes the function and configuration of the robot arm apparatus 10. Next, the function and configuration of the control apparatus 20 will be described. Referring to FIG. 6, the control apparatus 20 includes a storage unit 220 and a control unit 230.

The control unit 230 is made up of any of various types of processors such as a CPU, for example. The control unit 230 centrally controls the control device 20, while also performing various computations for controlling the driving of the arm unit 120 in the robot arm apparatus 10. Specifically, the control unit 230 performs various computations for whole body cooperative control and ideal joint control in order to control the driving of the arm unit 120 of the robot arm apparatus 10. Also, the control unit 230 performs various processes for deriving the reference position when observing a target object with the imaging unit 140.

The function and configuration of the control unit 230 will be described in detail. The control unit 230 includes a whole body cooperative control unit 240, an ideal joint control unit 250, and a reference position deriving unit 260.

The whole body cooperative control unit 240 performs various computations related to whole body cooperative control using generalized inverse dynamics. Also, the ideal joint control unit 250 performs various computations related to ideal joint control that realizes an ideal response based on a theoretical model. By controlling the driving of the robot arm apparatus 10 based on these computational results, the robot arm apparatus 10 is driven by force control. Herein, processes conducted by the whole body cooperative control unit 240 and the ideal joint control unit 250 will be described in further detail in <4. Whole body cooperative control> later, and at this point only an overview will be described briefly.

The generalized inverse dynamics are basic operations in whole body cooperative control of a multi-link structure of converting purposes of motion related to various dimensions in various kinds of operation spaces into torque to be generated by a plurality of joint units in view of various kinds of constraint conditions in a multi-link structure (for example, the arm unit 120) configured such that a plurality of links are connected by a plurality of joint units.

The operation space is an important concept in the force control of the robot apparatus. The operation space is a space for describing a relation between force acting on the multi-link structure and acceleration of the multi-link structure. When the driving control of the multi-link structure is performed by the force control rather than the position control, the concept of the operation space is necessary in the case in which a way of dealing with the multi-link structure and the environment is used as a constraint condition. The operation space is, for example, a space to which the multi-link structure belongs such as a joint space, a Cartesian space, or a momentum space.

The purpose of motion indicates a target value in the driving control of the multi-link structure, and, for example, a target value of a position, a speed, acceleration, force, or an impedance of the multi-link structure that is desired to be achieved through the driving control.

The constraint condition is a constraint condition related to, for example, a position, a speed, acceleration, or force of the multi-link structure that is decided by the shape or the structure of the multi-link structure, the environment around the multi-link structure, a setting performed by the user, or the like. The constraint condition may be various information that limits (constrains) the motion of the arm unit 120. For example, the constraint condition includes information about generated force, a priority, the presence or absence of a non-driven joint, vertical reactive force, a friction weight, a support polygon, and the like.

The whole body cooperative control unit 240 is able to use inverse generalized dynamics to compute a control value for driving the arm unit 120 to achieve a certain purpose of motion (for example, a driving parameter for each joint unit 130 (for example, a generated torque value of the joint unit 130)) while taking into account a certain constraint condition. In the present embodiment, the control value of the arm unit 120 is computed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240 under a constraint condition that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging unit 140, for example. Consequently, a control value of the arm unit 120 causing the imaging unit 140 to perform an operation such as a pivot operation is computed. As another example, as a result of the whole body cooperative control unit 240 computing a control value of the arm unit 120 under a constraint condition that the position and the orientation of the arm unit 120 are locked in a certain state, a control value of the arm unit 120 for which the arm unit 120 is locked (in other words, the imaging unit 140 is also locked) is computed. As another example, as a result of the whole body cooperative control unit 240 computing a control value of the arm unit 120 in a state in which a constraint condition is not particularly set, a control value of the arm unit 120 that realizes free operation allowing the positions and the orientations of the arm unit 120 and the imaging unit 140 to move freely is computed. The whole body cooperative control unit 240 provides information about the computed control value to the ideal joint control unit 250.

The ideal joint control unit 250 makes a correction that takes the influence of disturbance into account to the control value computed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240, and thereby computes a command value ultimately used to drive the arm unit 120. For example, the command value may be a generated torque value of the joint unit 130 that takes the influence of disturbance into account. The ideal joint control unit 250 transmits information about the computed command value to the robot arm apparatus 10. As a result of the drive control unit 111 causing each joint unit 130 to be driven based on the command value, the arm unit 120 is driven to achieve a certain purpose of motion under a certain constraint condition.

The reference position deriving unit 260 derives the reference position, which is a point that serves as a base of reference in the observation of a target object by the imaging unit 140. Herein, the derivation of the reference position may mean a process of computing the relative position of the reference position with respect to the arm unit 120, and thereby deriving the reference position in a reference coordinate system (for example, a coordinate system in an internal model) that the robot arm apparatus 10 uses to drive the arm unit 120. The derived reference position is used by the reference position deriving unit 260 to set a constraint condition that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging unit 140 as discussed above, for example. Under this constraint condition, the control value and the command value for driving the arm unit 120 are calculated by the whole body cooperative control unit 240 and the ideal joint control unit 250.

The function of the reference position deriving unit 260 will be described in detail. The reference position deriving unit 260 includes an arm state acquiring unit 241, a distance information acquiring unit 261, and a relative position computing unit 262.

The arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the state (the arm state) of the arm unit 120 based on the state of the joint unit 130 detected by the joint state detecting unit 132. Here, the arm state may mean the motion state of the arm unit 120. For example, the arm state includes information such as a position, a speed, acceleration, or force of the arm unit 120. As described above, the joint state detecting unit 132 acquires information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, the rotational angular acceleration, or the generated torque of each of the joint units 130 as the state of the joint unit 130. Further, as will be described later, the storage unit 220 stores various kinds of information that is processed by the control device 20, and in the present embodiment, the storage unit 220 may store various kinds of information (arm information) related to the arm unit 120, for example, the number of joint units 130 and the number of links configuring the arm unit 120, a connection state of the link and the joint unit 130, and the length of the link. The arm state acquiring unit 241 can acquire the corresponding information from the storage unit 220. Consequently, based on the state of the joint unit 130 and the arm information, the arm state acquiring unit 241 is able to acquire, as the arm state, information such as the position (coordinates) in real space of the multiple joint units 130, the multiple links, and the imaging unit 140 (in other words, the position and the orientation of the arm unit 120, as well as the position and the orientation of the imaging unit 140), and the force acting on each joint unit 130, each link, and the imaging unit 140. Note that various physical quantities included in the arm state may be expressed in a reference coordinate system used for driving control of the arm unit 120, such as the coordinate system of an internal model, for example.

In the present embodiment, the arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the arm state while the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the reference position. Note that the operation of pointing the imaging unit 140 at the reference position may be performed manually by the user while referring to an image captured by the imaging unit 140 and displayed on the display device 30, for example. The arm state acquiring unit 241 provides information about the acquired arm state to the relative position computing unit 262.

The distance information acquiring unit 261 acquires distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position in a state in which the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the reference position. For example, the distance information may be acquired based on the focal length of the imaging unit 140. Specifically, information about the focal length when the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the reference position and the focus point is aligned with the reference position may be transmitted from the imaging unit 140 to the distance information acquiring unit 261. Note that the process of aligning the focus point with the reference position may be conducted manually by the user, or if the imaging unit 140 includes an autofocus (AF) function, be conducted by the AF function. For example, the storage unit 220 stores information about the functions of the imaging device constituting the imaging unit 140, and by referencing the storage unit 220, the distance information acquiring unit 261 is able to acquire distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position as a work distance (WD) corresponding to the focal length. Note that the focal length may be computed by the imaging unit 140 based on the state of an optical system inside the imaging unit 140 (such as the position of a lens used for focus adjustment, for example). Additionally, the imaging unit 140 may also transmit information about the state of the optical system when focused to the distance information acquiring unit 261, and the computation of the focal length may be performed by the distance information acquiring unit 261. The distance information acquiring unit 261 provides the acquired distance information to the relative position computing unit 262.

The relative position computing unit 262 computes the relative position of the reference position with respect to the arm unit 120, based on the arm state acquired by the arm state acquiring unit 241 and the distance information acquired by the distance information acquiring unit 261. Specifically, the relative position computing unit 262 is able to recognize the positions and the orientations of the arm unit 120 and the imaging unit 140 in the reference coordinate system from the arm state of the arm unit 120. Additionally, the relative position computing unit 262 is able to recognize the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position based on the distance information. Consequently, the relative position computing unit 262 is able to compute the relative position of the reference position with respect to the arm unit 120 from this information.

The relative position computing unit 262 provides information about the computed relative position to the whole body cooperative control unit 240. Herein, computing the relative position of the reference position with respect to the arm unit 120 means deriving the coordinates of the reference position in the reference coordinate system. Consequently, it becomes possible to set the reference position as a constraint condition.

In the present embodiment, for example, a control value and a command value for driving the arm unit 120 is computed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240 and the ideal joint control unit 250 using the reference position, under a constraint condition that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging unit 140. Consequently, the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled so as to perform an operation in which the distance and the angle from the reference position are freely variable (in other words, so as to perform a pivot operation) in a state in which the imaging unit 140 always points at the reference position. Also, by setting the above constraint condition as well as an additional constraint condition that a certain point on the optical axis of the imaging unit 140 is locked to the reference position, the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled so that a pivot operation is performed in a state in which the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position is kept constant.

The storage unit 220 stores various kinds of pieces of information that are processed by the control device 20. In the present embodiment, the storage unit 220 can store various kinds of parameters used in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control performed by the control unit 230. For example, the storage unit 220 may store the purpose of motion and the constraint condition used in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control performed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240. Additionally, the storage unit 220 may also store information such as computational results and respective numerical values computed during the computational process as part of the computations related to the whole body cooperative control and ideal joint control by the control unit 230. Furthermore, the storage unit 220 may store various kinds of information related to the arm unit 120 used when the arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the arm state. Furthermore, the storage unit 220 is able to store information such as parameters used in various processes performed by the reference position deriving unit 260, and results from such processes. As described above, the storage unit 220 may store all parameters related to various kinds of processes performed by the control unit 230, and the control unit 230 can perform various kinds of processes while transmitting or receiving information to or from the storage unit 220.

The above thus describes a configuration of the robot arm control system 2 according to the present embodiment with reference to FIG. 1. As described above, in the present embodiment, a reference position when observing a target object with the imaging unit 140 is derived by the reference position deriving unit 260. Subsequently, by setting the derived reference position as a constraint condition when performing whole body cooperative control, a pivot operation centered on the reference position is realized. Herein, the derivation of the reference position is conducted by acquiring the arm state of the arm unit 120 and distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position in a state in which the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the reference position. The arm state of the arm unit 120 may be acquired automatically by the arm state acquiring unit 241, based on the state of the joint unit 130. Likewise, the distance information may also be acquired automatically by the distance information acquiring unit 261, based on information about the focal length of the imaging unit 140, for example. Consequently, the operation performed by the user for deriving the reference position may be simply an operation of pointing the imaging unit 140 at the reference position while referring to an image captured by the imaging unit 140 and displayed on the display device 30. Thus, compared to the operation described in Patent Literature 1 above, for example, the derivation of the reference position and the pivot operation centered on the reference position are realized with a simpler operation, without depending on the experience level of the operator. Consequently, since the work burden of the operator of the robot arm apparatus 10 during surgery is decreased, advantageous effects that further improve user convenience, such as shortened surgery times and decreased fatigue in the operator, are obtained. Additionally, in the present embodiment, such a pivot operation is performed in a robot arm apparatus 10 whose driving is controlled by what is known as force control. Consequently, the user is able to operate the arm unit 120 more intuitively when deriving the reference position and performing the pivot operation, and driving control of the robot arm apparatus 10 with higher operability and user convenience is realized.

Each of the above described components of the robot arm control system 2 according to the embodiment may be configured using a versatile member or circuit, and may be configured by hardware specialized for the function of each component. Further, all the functions of the components may be performed by a CPU or the like. Thus, a configuration to be used may be appropriately changed according to a technology level when the present embodiment is carried out.

Further, it is possible to create a computer program for implementing the functions of the robot arm control system 2 according to the present embodiment and install the computer program in a personal computer or the like. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a computer readable recording medium storing the computer program as well. Examples of the recording medium include a magnetic disk, an optical disc, a magneto optical disc, and a flash memory. Further, for example, the computer program may be delivered via a network without using the recording medium.

<3. Robot Arm Control Method>

Next, a robot arm control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described. With the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment, after the derivation of the reference position is performed, driving control of the arm unit using the reference position (for example, driving control of the arm unit causing the imaging device to perform a pivot operation in which the reference position serves as the pivot center point) is performed. Hereinafter, first, an overview of a reference position derivation method according to the present embodiment will be given with reference to FIG. 2. Next, a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to the present embodiment that also includes the reference position derivation method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3.

3-1. Overview of Reference Position Derivation Method

First, an overview of a reference position derivation method according to the present embodiment will be given with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for illustrating an overview of a reference position derivation method according to the present embodiment.

With the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment, first, as illustrated in FIG. 2, an imaging device (not illustrated) provided on the front edge of an arm unit 310 of a robot arm apparatus is pointed at a reference position 360 in real space. The arm unit 310 is made up of multiple links 312 joined by multiple joint units 311. The arm unit 310, the links 312, and the joint units 311 correspond to the arm unit 120, the link, and the joint unit 130 illustrated in FIG. 1. Note that although the robot arm apparatus actually may be configured by installing the arm unit 310 on top of a pedestal such as a base, in FIG. 2, the illustration of a member corresponding to a base is omitted for the sake of simplicity.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the arm unit 310 is configured to have six degrees of freedom. However, the configuration of the arm unit 310 of the robot arm apparatus is not limited to the illustrated example. The specific configuration of the arm unit 310, such as the number of joint units 311 provided and the way in which the links 312 and the joint units 311 are connected, may be decided appropriately to realize the desired degree of freedom according to the application of the robot arm apparatus. For example, in the case of the present embodiment, it is sufficient to decide the specific configuration of the arm unit 310 so that the arm unit 310 has enough degrees of freedom enabling the imaging device to perform the pivot operation.

Also, in FIG. 2, arrows expressing the reference coordinate system (X-Y-Z coordinates) that the robot arm apparatus uses to drive the arm unit 310 (for example, a coordinate system in an internal model) are schematically illustrated overlaid onto the arm unit 310. The origin of the X-Y-Z coordinates may be set appropriately to a position enabling the driving of the arm unit 310 to be stated easily.

The imaging device is a device such as a camera or a microscope, for example, and the reference position 360 may be a certain position on the target of observation (such as the surgical site of a patient, for example). In the present embodiment, since the line of sight (optical axis direction) of the imaging device is important, in FIG. 2, illustration of the imaging device is omitted for the sake of simplicity, and a field of view 330 of the imaging device is illustrated schematically as a plane, while in addition, arrows expressing coordinates inside the field of view 330 (x-y-z coordinates) are also illustrated. Herein, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the two mutually orthogonal axes inside the plane expressing the field of view 330 are taken to be the x axis and the y axis, while the line of sight of the imaging device is taken to be the z axis, which is the direction orthogonal to the plane expressing the field of view 330.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the imaging device is connected to the front edge of the arm unit 310 so that the line of sight of the imaging device matches the direction of the link 312 disposed at the front edge (the fingertip or tool direction of the arm unit 310). However, the present embodiment is not limited to such an example. It is sufficient for the imaging device to be provided on some part of the arm unit 310, and the installation position is not limited. As discussed above, in the present embodiment, to derive the reference position, it is sufficient to know the position of the imaging device and the distance between the imaging device and the reference position, and thus the position where the imaging device is provided does not necessarily have to be the front edge of the arm unit 310.

The process by which the imaging device is pointed at the reference position 360 may be performed manually by the user while referring to a display position displayed on an image captured by the imaging device, for example, in which the arm unit 310 is operated and the position and the orientation of the imaging device are adjusted so that the reference position 360 lies in the approximate center of the field of view 330. Herein, in this process, the operation mode of the arm unit 310 is set to a free operation mode enabling free operation discussed earlier, for example. In the free operation mode, each joint unit 311 may be moved freely according to the user's operating input. The user may move the imaging device to an appropriate position and orientation by applying external force directly to the arm unit 310, or move the imaging device to an appropriate position and orientation by moving the arm unit 310 via any of various input devices such as a remote control or a controller.

After the imaging device is pointed at the reference position 360, the state of each joint unit 311 in this state is detected, and the arm state is acquired based on the detected state of each joint unit 311. This process is conducted by a configuration corresponding to the arm state acquiring unit 241 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. The arm state includes information about the position and the orientation of the arm unit 310, and the robot arm apparatus is able to recognize the positions of the arm unit 310 and the imaging device in the reference coordinate system based on the arm state.

Furthermore, in parallel with the acquisition of the arm state, distance information expressing the distance between the imaging device and the reference position 360 is acquired in a state in which the imaging device is pointed at the reference position 360. This process is conducted by a configuration corresponding to the distance information acquiring unit 261 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. For example, the distance information may be acquired based on the focal length when the focus point of the imaging device is aligned with the reference position 360. In this case, for example, the optical system inside the imaging device may be adjusted appropriately so that the focus point of the imaging device aligns with the reference position 360, either by an autofocus (AF) function provided in the imaging device or manually by the user, and the focal length may be computed based on the state of the optical system when in focus.

After the arm state of the arm unit 310 and the distance information about the distance between the arm unit 310 and the reference position 360 are acquired, next, the relative position of the reference position 360 with respect to the arm unit 310 is computed. This process is conducted by a configuration corresponding to the relative position computing unit 262 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. This process may be a process of computing the position (coordinates) of the reference position 360 in the reference coordinate system. Since the robot arm apparatus recognizes the position of the imaging device in the reference coordinate system based on the arm state of the arm unit 310, and recognizes the distance from the imaging device to the reference position 360 based on the distance information, the robot arm apparatus is able to compute the position of the reference position 360 in the reference coordinate system from this information.

In the present embodiment, the coordinates of the reference position 360 in the reference coordinate system are computed in this way, and driving control of the arm unit 310 using the coordinates of the reference position 360, such as a pivot operation centered on the reference position 360, for example, is conducted.

The above thus describes an overview of a reference position determination method according to the present embodiment with reference to FIG. 2.

3-2. Processing Procedure of Robot Arm Control Method

Next, a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to an embodiment. The flowchart illustrated in FIG. 3 illustrates a series of processes when performing a pivot operation in a robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment. In addition, the series of processes illustrated in FIG. 3 may be executed by the robot arm control system 2 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. Herein, each process illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described in association with the configuration of the robot arm control system 2 illustrated in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment, first, the operation mode of the arm unit 120 is switched to the free operation mode (step S101). In this process, a control value causing the arm unit 120 to perform a free operation is computed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example, and the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled based on this control value. In the free operation mode, the arm unit 120 may be moved freely according to the user's operating input.

Next, the arm unit 120 is moved so that the reference position is contained in the center of the field of view of the imaging unit 140 (step S103). The reference position is a certain point on the surgical site of a patient, for example, and is the point that serves as the pivot center point during a pivot operation. In this process, for example, the position of the arm unit 120 may be adjusted manually by the user while referring to the display device 30 displaying an image captured by the imaging unit 140.

Next, the operation mode of the arm unit 120 is switched to a pivot operation mode that causes the imaging unit 140 to perform a pivot operation (step S105). Since performing a pivot operation requires a pivot center point to be set, it is judged whether or not a pivot center point is set (step S107). At this point, if the position and the orientation of the arm unit 120 varies, the pivot center point may also vary, and thus the case of a pivot center point being set corresponds to the case of switching to a locked mode (step S119 discussed later) after a pivot center point is first set, and then switching back to the pivot operation. Consequently, in the case of reaching step S107 through step S103, basically it is judged that a pivot center point is not set, and the flow proceeds to step S109.

In step S109, the arm state is acquired in a state in which the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the pivot center point. Next, in step S111, distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the pivot center point is acquired. Subsequently, based on the arm state and the distance information, the relative position of the pivot center point with respect to the arm unit 120 is computed (step S113). These processes may be conducted respectively by the arm state acquiring unit 241, the distance information acquiring unit 261, and the relative position computing unit 262 illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. Note that in FIG. 3, to emphasize that the arm state is acquired in order to derive the reference position, the process by which the arm state is acquired is illustrated formally as step S109. In the present embodiment, the arm state actually is being acquired by the arm state acquiring unit 241 continually while whole body cooperative control is being conducted, and thus the arm state is not acquired only at the timing illustrated in step S109.

After the relative position of the pivot center point is computed, the reference position is set as the pivot center point (step S115). Consequently, the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled so that the imaging unit 140 performs a pivot operation centered on the pivot center point. During the pivot operation, the user is able to freely adjust the viewpoint (distance and angle) in the state in which the line of sight (optical axis) of the imaging unit 140 is pointed at the pivot center point (step S117). Consequently, the user becomes able to give various treatments while observing the same target of observation (the surgical site) from multiple viewpoints.

During the carrying out of various treatments while performing the pivot operation, if it is desirable to lock the viewpoint at a specific position, the operation mode of the arm unit 120 may be switched to a locked operation mode (step S119). In the locked operation mode, the driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled so that the current state of the arm unit 120 is maintained, and the position and the orientation of the arm unit 120 become locked (step S121). With the locked operation mode, since the position and the orientation of the imaging unit 140 also become locked at a certain position, a captured image from a specific distance and angle is displayed on the display device 30.

After switching to the locked operation mode, it is judged whether or not to change the viewpoint again (step S123). In the case of continuing the medical procedure with the viewpoint still locked, the locked operation mode is maintained. On the other hand, if it is desirable to change the viewpoint again, the flow returns to step S105 and the operation mode switches to a pivot operation mode. Herein, when switching from the locked operation mode to the pivot operation mode, the imaging unit 140 remains in the state of pointing at the pivot center point from when the previous pivot operation was performed. Consequently, when switching from the locked operation mode to the pivot operation mode, it is judged that a pivot center point is set in the process illustrated in step S107, the process of deriving the reference position illustrated from step S109 to step S115 is omitted, and a pivot operation is performed based on the set pivot center point.

Additionally, when the surgeon desires to observe a different site, the operation mode is switched from the locked operation mode or the pivot operation mode to the free operation mode, and the series of processes from step S101 is conducted again.

The above thus describes a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to the present embodiment with reference to FIG. 3.

<4. Modifications>

Next, several modifications of the robot arm control system and the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment described above will be described.

4-1. Modification Regarding Operation of Pointing Imaging Unit at Reference Position

In the present embodiment, when deriving the reference position, an operation of pointing the imaging unit 140 at the reference position is performed. Specifically, in this operation, the positions and the orientations of the arm unit 120 and the imaging unit 140 are adjusted so that the reference position comes to the approximate center of the field of view of the imaging unit 140. In the foregoing embodiment, the user moves the arm unit 120 by applying external force directly to the arm unit 120 or via any of various input devices such as a remote control or a controller, and the position of the imaging unit 140 is adjusted. However, the present embodiment is not limited to such an example, and the positions and the orientations of the arm unit 120 and the imaging unit 140 may also be adjusted by another method so that the reference position comes to the approximate center of the field of view of the imaging unit 140.

For example, as a modification, the field of view may be moved based on operating input with respect to a captured image captured by the imaging unit 140 and displayed on the display device 30. The operating input may be a process of selecting a certain point on the screen, for example. Additionally, the this process of selecting may be performed by operating an on-screen cursor or pointer using an input device such as a mouse, for example, or if the screen of the display device 30 is made up of a touch panel, be performed by selecting a certain point directly with an operating member such as a finger or a stylus pen. For example, if the user selects a certain point on the screen of the display device 30 as the reference position, position information of the point selected on the screen of the display device 30 may be acquired by the control device 20, and based on this position information, the arm unit 120 may be driven so that the selected point becomes the center of the field of view of the imaging unit 140.

Also, as another modification, the field of view may also be moved by performing image analysis on a captured image captured by the imaging unit 140. For example, the surgeon applies a marker to a desired part of the surgical site to observe (that is, a part corresponding to the reference position). The operation of applying the marker may involve directly applying a certain mark to the surgical site with a surgical tool such as an electrosurgical instrument, for example, or involve using a dye solution to dye the surgical site with a certain color that is different from the surrounding tissue. For example, the control device 20 may perform image analysis on a captured image captured by the imaging unit 140 and thereby extract the marked part from the captured image, and control the driving of the arm unit 120 so that the extracted part becomes the center of the field of view of the imaging unit 140.

According to these modifications, the surgeon is able to adjust the field of view by performing an operation on the screen or the surgical site while referring to the screen of the display device 30, and thus it able to adjust the field of view more efficiently and more easily compared to the case of operating the arm unit 120 directly.

4-2. Modification Regarding Acquisition of Distance Information about Distance Between Imaging Unit and Reference Position

In the present embodiment, when deriving the reference position, distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position is acquired. In the foregoing embodiment, the distance information is acquired based on the focal length of the imaging unit 140. However, the present embodiment is not limited to such an example, and distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position may also be acquired by another method.

For example, as one modification, any of various types of range sensors utilizing a laser, ultrasound, infrared, or the like may be provided on the front edge of the arm unit 120, and distance information may be acquired by using the range sensor to measure the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position.

Also, as another modification, if the imaging unit 140 is made up of multiple cameras, such as a stereo camera or a compound-eye camera, parallax information acquired based on captured images captured by these multiple cameras may be used to acquire distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position.

Also, as yet another modification, an imaging device that captures images externally to the robot arm apparatus 10 may be provided separately, and by respectively measuring the distance between the external imaging device and the imaging unit 140 provided on the arm unit 120, and the distance between the external imaging device and the surgical site (reference position), distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position may be acquired. The method of measuring the distance between the external imaging device and the imaging unit 140 or the surgical site may involve utilizing the focal length of the external imaging device, or if the external imaging device is a stereo camera, a compound-eye camera, or the like, involve utilizing parallax information.

Also, as yet another modification, distance information about the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position may also be acquired by having the surgeon input distance information directly as a numerical value. In this case, based on the input distance information, the driving of the arm unit 120 may be controlled by the control device 20 so that the distance between the imaging unit 140 and the reference position becomes the input value.

For example, an appropriate method may be selected from among these modifications by comprehensively considering factors such as the application of the robot arm apparatus 10, the environment of the location where the medical procedure is to take place, measurement precision, and cost. Additionally, these methods may also be used in combination with each other. By measuring the distance using multiple methods, the measurement precision may be improved, and a pivot operation in which the pivot center point is positioned more precisely may be realized.

<5. Whole Body Cooperative Control>

Hereinafter, a configuration of a control system and a control method for realizing whole body cooperative control according to the present embodiment will be described. Herein, the robot arm control system 2 and the robot arm control method discussed above are favorably applicable to a robot arm apparatus for medical use. Accordingly, in the following, an embodiment of whole body cooperative control of a robot arm apparatus will be described by taking the example of a robot arm apparatus for medical use.

5-1. Investigation of Robot Arm Apparatus for Medical Use

First, to further elucidate the present disclosure, the background leading up to the inventors' conception of the embodiment described below will be described.

FIG. 4 will be referenced to describe an application example for the case of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure being used for medical use. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for describing an application example for the case of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure being used for medical use.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an exemplary medical procedure using the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment. Specifically, FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which a doctor serving as a practitioner (user) 520 performs surgery on a medical procedure target (patient) 540 on a medical procedure table 530, for example, using surgical instruments 521 such as a scalpel, tweezers, and forceps. In the following description, the medical procedure refers to a general concept including various kinds of medical treatments that the doctor serving as the user 520 performs on the patient of the medical procedure target 540 such as surgery or an examination. The example of FIG. 4 illustrates surgery as an example of the medical procedure, but the medical procedure using a robot arm apparatus 510 is not limited to surgery and may be various kinds of other medical procedures such as an examination using an endoscope.

The robot arm apparatus 510 according to the present embodiment is installed at the side of the medical procedure table 530. The robot arm apparatus 510 includes a base unit 511 serving as a base and an arm unit 512 extending from the base unit 511. The arm unit 512 includes a plurality of joint units 513 a, 513 b, 513 c, a plurality of links 514 a and 514 b connected by the joint units 513 a and 513 b, and an imaging unit 515 installed at the front edge of the arm unit 512. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, for the sake of simplification, the arm unit 512 includes the 3 joint units 513 a to 513 c and the 2 links 514 a and 514 b, but practically, for example, the number and the shape of the joint units 513 a to 513 c and the links 514 a and 514 b and a direction of the driving shaft of the joint units 513 a to 513 c may be appropriately set to express a desired degree of freedom in view of a degree of freedom of the position and posture of the arm unit 512 and the imaging unit 515.

The joint units 513 a to 513 c have a function of connecting the links 514 a and 514 b to be rotatable, and as the joint units 513 a to 513 c are rotationally driven, driving of the arm unit 512 is controlled. Here, in the following description, the position of each component of the robot arm apparatus 510 is the position (coordinates) in a space specified for driving control, and the posture of each component is a direction (angle) to an arbitrary axis in a space specified for driving control. Further, in the following description, driving (or driving control) of the arm unit 512 refers to changing (controlling a change of) the position and posture of each component of the arm unit 512 by performing driving (or driving control) of the joint units 513 a to 513 c and driving (or driving control) of the joint units 513 a to 513 c.

Various kinds of medical apparatuses are connected to the front edge of the arm unit 512 as the front edge unit. In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, the imaging unit 515 is installed at the front edge of the arm unit 512 as an exemplary front edge unit. The imaging unit 515 is a unit that acquires an image (a photographed image) of a photographing target and is, for example, a camera capable of capturing a moving image or a still image. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the posture or the position of the arm unit 512 and the imaging unit 515 is controlled by the robot arm apparatus 510 such that the imaging unit 515 installed at the front edge of the arm unit 512 photographs a state of a medical procedure part of the medical procedure target 540. The front edge unit installed at the front edge of the arm unit 512 is not limited to the imaging unit 515 and may be various kinds of medical apparatuses. For example, the medical apparatus includes various kinds of units used when the medical procedure is performed such as an endoscope, a microscope, a unit having an imaging function such as the imaging unit 515, various kinds of medical procedure instruments, and an examination apparatus. As described above, the robot arm apparatus 510 according to the present embodiment is a medical robot arm apparatus equipped with a medical apparatus. Further, a stereo camera having two imaging units (camera units) may be installed at the front edge of the arm unit 512, and may perform photography so that an imaging target is displayed as a three dimensional (3D) image. Note that the robot arm apparatus 510 provided with the imaging unit 515 or a camera unit such as the stereo camera for imaging the site of the medical procedure may also be called a video microscope robot arm apparatus.

Further, a display device 550 such as a monitor or a display is installed at a position facing the user 520. The captured image of the medical procedure part captured by the imaging unit 515 is displayed on a display screen of the display device 550. The user 520 performs various kinds of treatments while viewing the captured image of the medical procedure part displayed on the display screen of the display device 550.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in the medical field, a technique of performing surgery while photographing the medical procedure part through the robot arm apparatus 510 is proposed. Here, in various kinds of medical procedures including surgery, it is necessary to reduce fatigue or a burden on the user 520 and the patient 540 by performing the medical procedure efficiently. In order to satisfy such a demand, in the robot arm apparatus 510, for example, the following capabilities are considered desirable.

First, as a first point, the robot arm apparatus 510 should secure a task space for surgery. If the arm unit 512 or the imaging unit 515 hinders a field of vision of the practitioner or impedes motion of a hand performing a treatment while the user 520 is performing various kinds of treatments on the medical procedure target 540, the efficiency of surgery is lowered. Further, in FIG. 6, although not illustrated, in an actual surgical scene, for example, a plurality of other doctors and/or nurses performing various support tasks of handing an instrument to the user 520 or checking various kinds of vital signs of the patient 540 are commonly around the user 520 and the patient 540, and there are other devices for performing the support tasks, and thus a surgical environment is complicated. Thus, a small size is desirable in the robot arm apparatus 510.

Next, as a second point, the robot arm apparatus 510 should have high operability for moving the imaging unit 515. For example, the user 520 may desire to observe the same medical procedure part at various positions and angles while performing a treatment on the medical procedure part according to a surgical part or surgical content. In order to change an angle at which the medical procedure part is observed, it is necessary to change an angle of the imaging unit 515 with respect to the medical procedure part, but at this time, it is more desirable that only a photographing angle be changed in a state in which the photographing direction of the imaging unit 515 is fixed to the medical procedure part (that is, while photographing the same part). Thus, for example, the robot arm apparatus 510 should have operability of a high degree of freedom such as a turning movement (a pivot movement) in which the imaging unit 515 moves within a surface of a cone having the medical procedure part as an apex, and an axis of the cone is used as a pivot axis in the state in which the photographing direction of the imaging unit 515 is fixed to the medical procedure part. Since the photographing direction of the imaging unit 515 is fixed to a certain medical procedure part, the pivot movement is also called point lock movement.

Further, in order to change the position and the angle of the imaging unit 515, for example, a method in which the user 520 manually moves the arm unit 512 to move the imaging unit 515 to a desired position and at a desired angle is considered. Thus, it is desirable that there be operability enabling movement of the imaging unit 515, the pivot movement, or the like to be easily performed even with one hand.

Further, there may be a demand from the user 520 to move a photographing center of a captured image captured by the imaging unit 515 from a part on which a treatment is being performed to another part (for example, a part on which a next treatment will be performed) while performing a treatment with both hands during surgery. Thus, various driving methods of the arm unit 512 are necessary such as a method of controlling driving of the arm unit 512 by an operation input from an input unit such as a pedal as well as a method of controlling driving of the arm unit 512 by a manual motion when it is desired to change the position and posture of the imaging unit 515.

As described above as the capability of the second point, the robot arm apparatus 510 should have high operability enabling easy movement, for example, by the pivot movement or the manual motion and satisfying intuition or a desire of the user 520.

Lastly, as a third point, the robot arm apparatus 510 should have stability in the driving control of the arm unit 512. The stability in the driving control of the arm unit 512 may be stability in the position and posture of the front edge unit when the arm unit 512 is driven. The stability in the driving control of the arm unit 512 also includes smooth movement and suppression of vibration (vibration suppression) of the front edge unit when the arm unit 512 is driven. For example, when the front edge unit is the imaging unit 515 as in the example illustrated in FIG. 6, if the position or the posture of the imaging unit 515 is unstable, the captured image displayed on the display screen of the display device 550 is unstable, and the user may have a feeling of discomfort. Particularly, when the robot arm apparatus 510 is used for surgery, a use method in which a stereo camera including two imaging units (camera units) is installed as the front edge unit, and a 3D image generated based on photographed images obtained by the stereo camera is displayed can be assumed. As described above, when the 3D image is displayed, if the position or the posture of the stereo camera is unstable, the user is likely to experience 3D sickness. Further, an observation range photographed by the imaging unit 515 may be enlarged up to about φ15 mm depending on a surgical part or surgical content. When the imaging unit 515 enlarges and photographs a narrow range as described above, slight vibration of the imaging unit 515 is shown as a large shake or deviation of an imaged image. Thus, high positioning accuracy with a permissible range of about 1 mm is necessary for driving control of the arm unit 512 and the imaging unit 515. As described above, high-accuracy responsiveness and high positioning accuracy are necessary in driving control of the arm unit 512.

The inventors have reviewed existing general balance arms and robot arm apparatuses based on position control in terms of the above-mentioned 3 capabilities.

First, with regard to securing the task space for the surgery of the first point, in the general balance arm, a counter balance weight (also called a counter weight or a balancer) for maintaining balance of force when the arm unit is moved is installed inside the base unit or the like, and thus it is difficult to reduce the size of the balance arm apparatus, and it is difficult to say that the corresponding capability is fulfilled.

Further, with regard to the high operability of the second point, in the general balance arm, only some driving of the arm unit, for example, only biaxial driving for moving the imaging unit on a (two-dimensional) plane is electric driving, and manual positioning is necessary for movement of the arm unit and the imaging unit, and thus it is difficult to say that high operability can be implemented. Further, in the general robot arm apparatus based on the position control, since it is difficult to flexibly deal with external force by the position control used for driving control of the arm unit, that is, control of the position and posture of the imaging unit, the position control is commonly called “hard control” and is not suitable of implementing desired operability satisfying the user's intuition.

Further, with regard to stability in driving control of the arm unit of the third point, the joint unit of the arm unit generally has factors that are not easily modelized such as friction, inertia, and the like. In the general balance arm or the robot arm apparatus based on the position control, the factors serve as a disturbance in the driving control of the joint unit, and even when a theoretically appropriate control value (for example, a current value applied to a motor of the joint unit) is given, there are cases in which desired driving (for example, rotation at a desired angle in the motor of the joint unit) is not implemented, and it is difficult to implement high stability necessary for driving control of the arm unit.

As described above, the inventors have reviewed robot arm apparatuses being used for medical purposes and learned that there is a demand for the capabilities of the above-mentioned three points with regard to the robot arm apparatus. However, it is difficult for the general balance arm or the robot arm apparatus based on the position control to easily fulfill such capabilities. The inventors have developed a robot arm apparatus, a robot arm control system, a robot arm control method, and a program according to the embodiments described later as a result of reviewing configurations satisfying the capabilities of the three points. Hereinafter, an embodiments of the configuration developed by the inventors will be described in detail.

5-2. Embodiment of Present Disclosure

A robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described below. In the robot arm control system according to the present embodiment, driving of a plurality of joint units installed in the robot arm apparatus is controlled by whole body cooperative control using generalized inverse dynamics. Further, ideal joint control of implementing an ideal response to a command value by correcting influence of a disturbance is applied to driving control of the joint unit.

In the following description of the present embodiment, an external appearance of the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment and a schematic configuration of the robot arm apparatus will be first described in (5-2-1. External appearance of robot arm apparatus). Then, an overview of the generalized inverse dynamics and the ideal joint control used for control of the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and (5-2-3. Ideal joint control). Then, a configuration of a system for controlling the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to a functional block diagram in (5-2-4. Configuration of robot arm control system). Lastly, a specific example of the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics in the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in (5-2-5. Specific example of purpose of motion).

Further, the following description will proceed with an example in which a front edge unit of an arm unit of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is an imaging unit, and a medical procedure part is photographed by the imaging unit during surgery as illustrated in FIG. 4 as an embodiment of the present disclosure, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example. The robot arm control system according to the present embodiment can be applied even when a robot arm apparatus including a different front edge unit is used for another purpose.

5-2-1. External Appearance of Robot Arm Apparatus

First, a schematic configuration of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an external appearance of a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5, a robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment includes a base unit 410 and an arm unit 420. The base unit 410 serves as the base of the robot arm apparatus 400, and the arm unit 420 extends from the base unit 410. Although not illustrated in FIG. 5, a control unit that controls the robot arm apparatus 400 in an integrated manner may be installed in the base unit 410, and driving of the arm unit 420 may be controlled by the control unit. For example, the control unit is configured with various kinds of signal processing circuits such as a central processing unit (CPU) or a digital signal processor (DSP).

The arm unit 420 includes a plurality of joint units 421 a to 421 f, a plurality of links 422 a to 422 c that are connected with one another by the joint units 421 a to 421 f, and an imaging unit 423 installed at the front edge of the arm unit 420.

The links 422 a to 422 c are rod-like members, one end of the link 422 a is connected with the base unit 410 through the joint unit 421 a, the other end of the link 422 a is connected with one end of the link 422 b through the joint unit 421 b, and the other end of the link 422 b is connected with one end of the link 422 c through the joint units 421 c and 421 d. Further, the imaging unit 423 is connected to the front edge of the arm unit 420, that is, the other end of the link 422 c through the joint units 421 e and 421 f. As described above, the arm shape extending from the base unit 410 is configured such that the base unit 410 serves as a support point, and the ends of the plurality of links 422 a to 422 c are connected with one another through the joint units 421 a to 421 f.

The imaging unit 423 is a unit that acquires an image of a photographing target, and is, for example, a camera that captures a moving image, a still image. The driving of the arm unit 420 is controlled such that the position and posture of the imaging unit 423 are controlled. In the present embodiment, for example, the imaging unit 423 photographs some regions of the body of the patient serving as the medical procedure part. Here, the front edge unit installed at the front edge of the arm unit 420 is not limited to the imaging unit 423, and various kinds of medical apparatuses may be connected to the front edge of the arm unit 420 as the front edge unit. As described above, the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment is a medical robot arm apparatus equipped with a medical apparatus.

Here, the description of the robot arm apparatus 400 will proceed with coordinate axes defined as illustrated in FIG. 5. Further, a vertical direction, a longitudinal direction, and a horizontal direction are defined according to the coordinate axes. In other words, a vertical direction with respect to the base unit 410 installed on the floor is defined as a z axis direction and a vertical direction. Further, a direction along which the arm unit 420 extends from the base unit 410 as a direction orthogonal to the z axis (that is, a direction in which the imaging unit 423 is positioned with respect to the base unit 410) is defined as a y axis direction and a longitudinal direction. Furthermore, a direction that is orthogonal to the y axis and the z axis is an x axis direction and a horizontal direction.

The joint units 421 a to 421 f connect the links 422 a to 422 c to be rotatable. Each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f includes a rotation mechanism that includes an actuator and is rotationally driven on a certain rotary axis according to driving of the actuator. By controlling rotary driving in each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, for example, it is possible to control driving of the arm unit 420 to extend or shorten (fold) the arm unit 420. Here, driving of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is controlled by the whole body cooperative control which will be described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and the ideal joint control which will be described in (5-2-3. Ideal joint control). Further, as described above, since the joint units 421 a to 421 f according to the present embodiment include the rotation mechanism, in the following description, driving control of the joint units 421 a to 421 f specifically means controlling a rotational angle and/or generated torque (torque generated by the joint units 421 a to 421 f) of the joint units 421 a to 421 f.

The robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment includes the 6 joint units 421 a to 421 f, and implements 6 degrees of freedom with regard to driving of the arm unit 420. Specifically, as illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the joint units 421 a, 421 d, and 421 f are installed such that the long axis directions of the links 422 a to 422 c connected thereto and the photographing direction of the imaging unit 473 connected thereto are set as the rotary axis direction, and the joint units 421 b, 421 c, and 421 e are installed such that an x axis direction serving as a direction in which connection angles of the links 422 a to 422 c and the imaging unit 473 connected thereto are changed within a y-z plane (a plane specified by the y axis and the z axis) is set as the rotary axis direction. As described above, in the present embodiment, the joint units 421 a, 421 d, and 421 f have a function of performing yawing, and the joint units 421 b, 421 c, and 421 e have a function of performing pitching.

As the above-described configuration of the arm unit 420 is provided, the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment can implement the 6 degrees of freedom on driving of the arm unit 420, and thus can freely move the imaging unit 423 within a movable range of the arm unit 420. FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a hemisphere as an exemplary movable range of the imaging unit 423. When the central point of the hemisphere is the photographing center of the medical procedure part photographed by the imaging unit 423, the medical procedure part can be photographed at various angles by moving the imaging unit 423 on the spherical surface of the hemisphere in a state in which the photographing center of the imaging unit 423 is fixed to the central point of the hemisphere.

A configuration of the joint units 421 a to 421 f illustrated in FIG. 5 will be described herein in further detail with reference to FIG. 6. Further, a configuration of an actuator serving as a component mainly related to the rotary driving of the joint units 421 a to 421 f among the components of the joint units 421 a to 421 f will be described herein with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional diagram schematically illustrating a state in which an actuator of each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is cut along a cross section passing through the rotary axis. FIG. 8 illustrates an actuator among the components of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, but the joint units 421 a to 421 f may have any other component. For example, the joint units 421 a to 421 f have various kinds of components necessary for driving of the arm unit 420 such as a control unit for controlling driving of the actuator and a support member for connecting and supporting the links 422 a to 422 c and the imaging unit 423 in addition to the components illustrated in FIG. 6. Further, in the above description and the following description, driving of the joint unit of the arm unit may mean driving of the actuator in the joint unit.

As described above, in the present embodiment, driving of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is controlled by the ideal joint control which will be described later in (5-2-3. Ideal joint control). Thus, the actuator of the joint units 421 a to 421 f illustrated in FIG. 8 is configured to perform driving corresponding to the ideal joint control. Specifically, the actuator of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is configured to be able to adjust the rotational angles and torque associated with the rotary driving in the joint units 421 a to 421 f. Further, the actuator of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is configured to be able to arbitrarily adjust a viscous drag coefficient on a rotary motion. For example, it is possible to implement a state in which rotation is easily performed (that is, the arm unit 420 is easily moved by a manual motion) by force applied from the outside or a state in which rotation is not easily performed (that is, the arm unit 420 is not easily moved by a manual motion) by force applied from the outside.

Referring to FIG. 6, an actuator 430 of the joint units 421 a to 421 f according to the present embodiment includes a motor 424, a motor driver 425, a reduction gear 426, an encoder 427, a torque sensor 428, and a driving shaft 429. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the encoder 427, the motor 424, the reduction gear 426, and the torque sensor 428 are connected to the driving shaft 429 in series in the described order.

The motor 424 is a prime mover in the actuator 430, and causes the driving shaft 429 to rotate about its axis. For example, the motor 424 is an electric motor such as a brushless DC motor. In the present embodiment, as the motor 424 is supplied with an electric current, the rotary driving is controlled.

The motor driver 425 is a driver circuit (a driver integrated circuit (IC)) for supplying an electric current to the motor 424 and rotationally driving the motor 424, and can control the number of revolutions of the motor 424 by adjusting an amount of electric current supplied to the motor 424. Further, the motor driver 425 can adjust the viscous drag coefficient on the rotary motion of the actuator 430 by adjusting an amount of electric current supplied to the motor 424.

The reduction gear 426 is connected to the driving shaft 429, and generates rotary driving force (that is, torque) having a certain value by reducing the rotation speed of the driving shaft 429 generated by the motor 424 at a certain reduction ratio. A high-performance reduction gear of a backlashless type is used as the reduction gear 426. For example, the reduction gear 426 may be a Harmonic Drive (a registered trademark). The torque generated by the reduction gear 426 is transferred to an output member (not illustrated) (for example, a connection member of the links 422 a to 422 c, the imaging unit 423, or the like) at a subsequent stage through the torque sensor 428 connected to an output shaft of the reduction gear 426.

The encoder 427 is connected to the driving shaft 429, and detects the number of revolutions of the driving shaft 429. It is possible to obtain information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, and the rotational angular acceleration of the joint units 421 a to 421 f based on a relation between the number of revolutions of the driving shaft 429 detected by the encoder and the reduction ratio of the reduction gear 426.

The torque sensor 428 is connected to the output shaft of the reduction gear 426, and detects the torque generated by the reduction gear 426, that is, the torque output by the actuator 430. In the following description, the torque output by the actuator 430 is also referred to simply as “generated torque.”

As described above, the actuator 430 can adjust the number of revolutions of the motor 424 by adjusting an amount of electric current supplied to the motor 424. Here, the reduction ratio of the reduction gear 426 may be appropriately set according to the purpose of the robot arm apparatus 400. Thus, the generated torque can be controlled by appropriately adjusting the number of revolutions of the motor 424 according to the reduction ratio of the reduction gear 426. Further, in the actuator 430, it is possible to obtain information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, and the rotational angular acceleration of the joint units 421 a to 421 f based on the number of revolutions of the driving shaft 429 detected by the encoder 427, and it is possible to detect the generated torque in the joint units 421 a to 421 f through the torque sensor 428.

Further, the torque sensor 428 can detect external torque applied from the outside as well as the generated torque generated by the actuator 430. Thus, as the motor driver 425 adjusts an amount of electric current supplied to the motor 424 based on the external torque detected by the torque sensor 428, it is possible to adjust the viscous drag coefficient on the rotary motion and implement, for example, the state in which rotation is easily or not easily performed by force applied from the outside.

Here, a configuration of the torque sensor 428 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating a state of the torque sensor 428 illustrated in FIG. 6 viewed in the axis direction of the driving shaft 429.

Referring to FIG. 7A, the torque sensor 428 includes an outer ring section 431, an inner ring section 432, beam sections 433 a to 433 d, and distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, the outer ring section 431 and the inner ring section 432 are concentrically arranged. In the present embodiment, the inner ring section 432 is connected to an input side, that is, the output shaft of the reduction gear 426, and the outer ring section 431 is connected to an output side, that is, an output member (not illustrated) at a subsequent stage.

The 4 beam sections 433 a to 433 d are arranged between the outer ring section 431 and the inner ring section 432 that are concentrically arranged, and connect the outer ring section 431 with the inner ring section 432. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, the beam sections 433 a to 433 d are interposed between the outer ring section 431 and the inner ring section 432 so that two neighboring sections of the beam sections 433 a to 433 d form an angle of 90°.

The distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d are installed at the two sections facing each other, that is, disposed at an angle of 180° among the beam sections 433 a to 433 d. It is possible to detect the generated torque and the external torque of the actuator 430 based on a deformation amount of the beam sections 433 a to 433 d detected by the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 7A, among the beam sections 433 a to 433 d, the distortion detecting elements 434 a and 434 b are installed at the beam section 433 a, and the distortion detecting elements 434 c and 434 d are installed at the beam section 433 c. Further, the distortion detecting elements 434 a and 434 b are installed with the beam section 433 a interposed therebetween, and the distortion detecting elements 434 c and 434 d are installed with the beam section 433 c interposed therebetween. For example, the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d are distortion gauges attached to the surfaces of the beam sections 433 a and 433 c, and detect geometric deformation amounts of the beam sections 433 a and 433 c based on a change in electrical resistance. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d are installed at 4 positions, and the detecting elements 434 a to 434 d configure a so-called Wheatstone bridge. Thus, since it is possible to detect distortion using a so-called four-gauge technique, it is possible to reduce influence of interference of shafts other than a shaft in which distortion is detected, eccentricity of the driving shaft 429, a temperature drift, or the like.

As described above, the beam sections 433 a to 433 d serve as a distortion inducing body whose distortion is detected. The type of the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d according to the present embodiment is not limited to a distortion gauge, and any other element may be used. For example, the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d may be elements that detect the deformation amounts of the beam sections 433 a to 433 d based on a change in magnetic characteristics.

Although not illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7A, the following configuration may be applied in order to improve the detection accuracy of the generated torque and the external torque by the torque sensor 428. For example, when portions of the beam sections 433 a to 433 d which are connected with the outer ring section 431 are formed at a thinner thickness than other portions, since a support moment is released, linearity of a deformation amount to be detected is improved, and influence by a radial load is reduced. Further, when both the outer ring section 431 and the inner ring section 432 are supported by a housing through a bearing, it is possible to exclude an action of other axial force and a moment from both the input shaft and the output shaft. Further, in order to reduce another axial moment acting on the outer ring section 431, a support bearing may be arranged at the other end of the actuator 430 illustrated in FIG. 6, that is, a portion at which the encoder 427 is arranged.

The configuration of the torque sensor 428 has been described above with reference to FIG. 7A. As described above, through the configuration of the torque sensor 428 illustrated in FIG. 7A, it is possible to detect the generated torque and the external torque of the actuator 430 with a high degree of accuracy.

Here, in the present embodiment, the configuration of the torque sensor 428 is not limited to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 7A and may be any other configuration. Another exemplary configuration of the torque sensor applied to the actuator 430 other than the torque sensor 428 will be described with reference to FIG. 7B.

FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram illustrating another exemplary configuration of the torque sensor applied to the actuator 430 illustrated in FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 7B, a torque sensor 428 a according to the present modified example includes an outer ring section 441, an inner ring section 442, beam sections 443 a to 443 d, and distortion detecting elements 444 a to 444 d. FIG. 7B schematically illustrates a state of the torque sensor 428 a viewed in the axis direction of the driving shaft 429, similarly to FIG. 7A.

In the torque sensor 428 a, functions and configurations of the outer ring section 441, the inner ring section 442, the beam sections 443 a to 443 d, and the distortion detecting elements 444 a to 444 d are similar to the functions and the configurations of the outer ring section 431, the inner ring section 432, the beam sections 433 a to 433 d, and the distortion detecting elements 434 a to 434 d of the torque sensor 428 described above with reference to FIG. 7A. The torque sensor 428 a according to the present modified example differs in a configuration of a connection portion of the beam sections 443 a to 443 d and the outer ring section 441. Thus, the torque sensor 428 a illustrated in FIG. 7B will be described focusing on a configuration of the connection portion of the beam sections 443 a to 443 d and the outer ring section 441 that is the difference with the torque sensor 428 illustrated in FIG. 7A, and a description of a duplicated configuration will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 7B, the connection portion of the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441 is enlarged and illustrated together with a general view of the torque sensor 428 a. In FIG. 7B, only the connection portion of the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441 which is one of the four connection portions of the beam sections 443 a to 443 d and the outer ring section 441 is enlarged and illustrated, but the other 3 connection portions of the beam sections 443 a, 443 c, and 443 d and the outer ring section 441 have the same configuration.

Referring to an enlarged view in FIG. 7B, in the connection portion of the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441, an engagement concave portion is formed in the outer ring section 441, and the beam section 443 b is connected with the outer ring section 441 such that the front edge of the beam section 443 b is engaged with the engagement concave portion. Further, gaps G1 and G2 are formed between the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441. The gap G1 indicates a gap between the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441 in a direction in which the beam section 443 b extends toward the outer ring section 441, and the gap G2 indicates a gap between the beam section 443 b and the outer ring section 441 in a direction orthogonal to that direction.

As described above, in the torque sensor 428 a, the beam sections 443 a to 443 d and the outer ring section 441 are arranged to be separated from each other with the certain gaps G1 and G2. In other words, in the torque sensor 428 a, the outer ring section 441 is separated from the inner ring section 442. Thus, since the inner ring section 442 has a degree of freedom of a motion without being bound to the outer ring section 441, for example, even when vibration occurs at the time of driving of the actuator 430, a distortion by vibration can be absorbed by the air gaps G1 and G2 between the inner ring section 442 and the outer ring section 441. Thus, as the torque sensor 428 a is applied as the torque sensor of the actuator 430, the generated torque and the external torque are detected with a high degree of accuracy.

For example, JP 2009-269102A and JP 2011-209099A which are patent applications previously filed by the present applicant can be referred to for the configuration of the actuator 430 corresponding to the ideal joint control illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7A, and 7B.

The schematic configuration of the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment has been described above with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, 7A, and 7B. Next, the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control for controlling driving of the arm unit 420, that is, driving of the joint units 421 a to 421 f in the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment, will be described.

5-2-2. Generalized Inverse Dynamics

Next, an overview of the generalized inverse dynamics used for the whole body cooperative control of the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment will be described.

The generalized inverse dynamics are basic operations in whole body cooperative control of a multi-link structure of converting purposes of motion related to various dimensions in various kinds of operation spaces into torque to be generated by a plurality of joint units in view of various kinds of constraint conditions in a multi-link structure (for example, the arm unit 420 illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B in the present embodiment) configured such that a plurality of links are connected by a plurality of joint units.

The operation space is an important concept in the force control of the robot apparatus. The operation space is a space for describing a relation between force acting on the multi-link structure and acceleration of the multi-link structure. When the driving control of the multi-link structure is performed by the force control rather than the position control, the concept of the operation space is necessary in the case in which a way of dealing with the multi-link structure and the environment is used as a constraint condition. The operation space is, for example, a space to which the multi-link structure belongs such as a joint space, a Cartesian space, or a momentum space.

The purpose of motion indicates a target value in the driving control of the multi-link structure, and, for example, a target value of a position, a speed, acceleration, force, or an impedance of the multi-link structure that is desired to be achieved through the driving control.

The constraint condition is a constraint condition related to, for example, a position, a speed, acceleration, or force of the multi-link structure that is decided by the shape or the structure of the multi-link structure, the environment around the multi-link structure, a setting performed by the user, or the like. For example, the constraint condition includes information about generated force, a priority, the presence or absence of a non-driven joint, vertical reactive force, a friction weight, a support polygon, and the like.

In the generalized dynamics, in order to achieve both stability of numeric calculation and real-time processable operation efficiency, an operation algorithm is configured with a virtual force decision process (a virtual force calculating process) serving as a first stage and an actual force conversion process (an actual force calculating process) serving as a second stage. In the virtual force calculating process serving as the first stage, virtual force serving as virtual force that is necessary for achieving each purpose of motion and acts on the operation space is decided in view of a priority of a purpose of motion and a maximum value of the virtual force. In the actual force calculating process serving as the second stage, the calculated virtual force is converted into actual force that can be implemented by a configuration of an actual multi-link structure such as joint force or external force in view of a constraint related to a non-driven joint, vertical reactive force, a friction weight, a support polygon, or the like. The virtual force calculating process and the actual force calculating process will be described below. In the following description of the virtual force calculating process, the actual force calculating process, and the ideal joint control, for easier understanding, there are cases in which an exemplary configuration of the arm unit 420 of the robot arm apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 is described as a specific example.

5-2-2-1. Virtual Force Calculating Process

A vector configured with certain physical quantities in the joint units of the multi-link structure is referred to as a “generalized variable q” (also referred to as a “joint value q” or a “joint space q”). An operation space x is defined by the following Equation (1) using a time differential value of the generalized variable q and a Jacobian J:

[Math 1]

{dot over (x)}=J{dot over (q)}  (1)

In the present embodiment, for example, q indicates a rotational angle in the joint units 421 a to 421 f of the arm unit 420. An equation of motion related to the operation space x is described by the following Equation (2):

[Math 2]

{umlaut over (x)}=Λ ⁻¹ f+c  (2)

Here, f indicates force acting on the operation space x. Further, Λ⁻¹ indicates an operation space inertia inverse matrix, c indicates operation space bias acceleration, and Λ⁻¹ and c are expressed by the following Equations (3) and (4).

[Math 3]

Λ⁻¹ =JH ⁻¹ J ^(T)  (3)

c=JH ⁻¹(τ−b)+{dot over (J)}{dot over (q)}  (4)

H indicates a joint space inertia matrix, τ indicates joint force (for example, generated torque in the joint units 421 a to 421 f) corresponding to the joint value q, and b is a term indicating gravity, Coriolis force, or centrifugal force.

In the generalized inverse dynamics, the purpose of motion of the position and the speed related to the operation space x is known to be expressed as acceleration of the operation space x. At this time, in order to implement the operation space acceleration serving as the target value given as the purpose of motion from Equation (1), virtual force f_(v) that has to act on the operation space x is obtained by solving a sort of linear complementary problem (LCP) expressed by the following Equation (5).

$\begin{matrix} \left\lbrack {{Math}\mspace{14mu} 4} \right\rbrack & \; \\ {{{w + x} = {{\Lambda^{- 1}f_{v}} + c}}{s.t.\left\{ \begin{matrix} {\left( {\left( {w_{i} < 0} \right)\bigcap\left( {f_{v_{i}} = U_{i}} \right)} \right)\bigcup} \\ {\left( {\left( {w_{i} > 0} \right)\bigcap\left( {f_{v_{i}} = L_{i}} \right)} \right)\bigcup} \\ \left( {\left( {w_{i} = 0} \right)\bigcap\left( {L_{i} < f_{v_{i}} < U_{i}} \right)} \right) \end{matrix} \right.}} & (5) \end{matrix}$

Here, L_(i) and U_(i) are set to a negative lower limit value (including −∞) of an i-th component of f_(v) and a positive upper limit value (including+∞) of the i-th component of f_(v). The LCP can be solved, for example, using an iterative technique, a pivot technique, a method using robust acceleration control, or the like.

Further, the operation space inertia inverse matrix Λ⁻¹ and the bias acceleration c are large in a calculation cost when they are calculated as in Equations (3) and (4) serving as definitional equations. Thus, a method of performing the calculation process of the operation space inertia inverse matrix Λ⁻¹ at a high speed by applying a quasidynamics calculation (FWD) of calculating generalized acceleration (joint acceleration) from generalized force (the joint force τ) of the multi-link structure has been proposed. Specifically, the operation space inertia inverse matrix Λ⁻¹ and the bias acceleration c can be obtained based on information related to force acting on the multi-link structure (for example, the arm unit 420 and the joint units 421 a to 421 f) such as the joint space q, the joint force τ, or the gravity g using the forward dynamics calculation FWD. As described above, the operation space inertia inverse matrix Λ⁻¹ can be calculated with a calculation amount of O(N) on the number N of joint units by applying the forward dynamics calculation FWD related to the operation space.

Here, as a setting example of the purpose of motion, a condition for achieving the target value (indicated by adding a bar above a second order differential of x) of the operation space acceleration by the virtual force f_(vi) of an absolute value F_(i) or less can be expressed by the following Equation (6):

[Math 5]

L _(i) =−F _(i),

U _(i) =F _(i),

{umlaut over (x)} _(i)={umlaut over ( x )}_(i)  (6)

As described above, the purpose of motion related to the position and the speed of the operation space x can be represented as the target value of the operation space acceleration and is specifically expressed by the following Equation (7) (the target value of the position and the speed of the operation space x are indicated by adding a bar above x and a first order differential of x).

[Math 6]

{umlaut over ( x )}_(i) =K _(p)( x _(i) −x _(i))+K _(ν)({dot over ( x )}_(i) −{dot over (x)} _(i))  (7)

It is also possible to set the purpose of motion related to the operation space (momentum, Cartesian relative coordinates, an interlocked joint, and the like) represented by a linear sum of other operation spaces using an approach of a decomposition operation space. Further, it is necessary to give priorities to competing purposes of motion. The LCP is solved for each priority or in ascending order of priorities, and it is possible to cause virtual force obtained from a previous LCP to act as known external force of a subsequent LCP.

5-2-2-2. Actual Force Calculating Process

In the actual force calculating process serving as the second stage of the generalized inverse dynamics, a process of replacing the virtual force f_(v) obtained in (2-2-1. Virtual force decision process) with actual joint force and external force is performed. A condition of implementing generalized force τ_(v)=J_(v) ^(τ)f_(v) based on virtual force through generated torque τ_(a) generated by the joint unit and external force f_(e) is expressed by the following Equation (8).

$\begin{matrix} \left\lbrack {{Math}\mspace{14mu} 7} \right\rbrack & \; \\ {{\begin{bmatrix} J_{vu}^{T} \\ J_{va}^{T} \end{bmatrix}\left( {f_{v} - {\Delta \; f_{v}}} \right)} = {{\begin{bmatrix} J_{eu}^{T} \\ J_{ea}^{T} \end{bmatrix}f_{e}} + \begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ \tau_{a} \end{bmatrix}}} & (8) \end{matrix}$

Here, a subscript a indicates a set of driven joint units (a driven joint set), and a subscript u indicates a set of non-driven joint units (a non-driven joint set). In other words, the upper portions in Equation (8) represent balance of force of a space (a non-driven joint space) by the non-driven joint unit, and the lower portions represent balance of force of a space (a driven joint space) by the driven joint unit. J_(vu) and J_(va) indicate a non-driven joint component and a driven joint component of a Jacobian related to the operation space on which the virtual force f_(v) acts, respectively. J_(eu) and J_(ea) indicate a non-driven joint component and a driven joint component of a Jacobian related to the operation space on which the external force f_(e) acts. Δf_(v) indicates a component of the virtual force f_(v) that is hardly implemented by actual force.

The upper portions in Equation (8) are undefined, and, for example, f_(e) and Δf_(v) can be obtained by solving a quadratic programming problem (QP) expressed by the following Equation (9).

[Math 8]

min½ε^(T) Q ₁ε+½ξ^(T) Q ₂ξ

s·t·Uξ≥ν  (9)

Here, ε is a difference between sides of the upper portions in Equation (8), and indicates an equation error. ξ is a connection vector of f_(e) and Δf_(v), and indicates a variable vector. Q₁ and Q₂ are positive definite symmetric matrices indicating weights at the time of minimization. Further, an inequality constraint of Equation (9) is used to express a constraint condition related to external force such as vertical reactive force, a friction cone, a maximum value of external force, and a support polygon. For example, an inequality constraint related to a rectangular support polygon is expressed by the following Equation (10).

[Math 9]

|F _(x)|≥μ_(t) F _(z),

|F _(y)|≥μ_(t) F _(z),

F _(z)≥0,

|M _(x) |≥d _(y) F _(z),

|M _(y) |≥d _(x) F _(z),

|M _(z)|≥μ_(r) F _(z)  (10)

Here, z indicates a normal direction of a contact surface, and x and y indicate two orthogonal tangential directions that are vertical to z. (F_(x), F_(y), F_(z)) and (M_(x),M_(y),M_(z)) are external force and external force moment acting on a contact point. μ_(t) and μ_(r) indicate friction coefficients related to translation and rotation. (d_(x),d_(y)) indicates a size of a support polygon.

The solutions f_(e) and Δf_(v) of a minimum norm or a minimum error are obtained from Equations (9) and (10). It is possible to obtain the joint force τ_(a) necessary for implementing the purpose of motion by substituting f_(e) and Δf_(v) obtained from Equation (9) into the lower portion of Equation (8).

In the case of a system in which the basis is fixed, and there is no non-driven joint, all virtual force can be replaced only with joint force, and f_(e)=0 and Δf_(v)=0 can be set in Equation (8). In this case, the following Equation (11) can be obtained for the joint force τ_(a) from the lower portions in Equation (8).

[Math 10]

τ_(a) =J _(νa) ^(T) f _(ν)  (11)

The whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics according to the present embodiment has been described above. As described above, as the virtual force calculating process and the actual force calculating process are sequentially performed, it is possible to obtain the joint force τ_(a) for achieving a desired purpose of motion. In other words, conversely, as the calculated joint force τ_(a) is reflected in a theoretical model in motion of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, the joint units 421 a to 421 f are driven to achieve a desired purpose of motion.

Further, for example, JP 2009-95959A and JP 2010-188471A which are patent applications previously filed by the present applicant can be referred to for the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics described above, particularly, for the details of a process of deriving the virtual force f_(v), a method of solving the LCP and obtaining the virtual force f_(v), the resolution to the QP problem, and the like.

5-2-3. Ideal Joint Control

Next, the ideal joint control according to the present embodiment will be described. Motion of each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is modelized by an equation of motion of a second order delay system of the following Equation (12):

[Math 11]

I _(a) {umlaut over (q)}=τ _(a)+τ_(e)−ν_(a) {dot over (q)}  (12)

Here, I_(a) indicates an inertia moment (inertia) in a joint unit, τ_(a) indicates generated torque of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, τ _(e) indicates external torque acting on each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, and τ_(e) indicates a viscous drag coefficient in each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f. Equation (12) can also be regarded as a theoretical model representing motion of the actuator 430 in the joint units 421 a to 421 f.

As described above in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics), through the calculation using the generalized inverse dynamics, it is possible to calculate τ_(a) serving as actual force that each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f has to use to implement the purpose of motion using the purpose of motion and the constraint condition. Thus, ideally, a response according to the theoretical model expressed by Equation (12) is implemented, that is, a desired purpose of motion is achieved by applying each calculated τ_(a) to Equation (12).

However, practically, there are cases in which an error (a modelization error) between motion of the joint units 421 a to 421 f and the theoretical model expressed by Equation (12) occurs due to influence of various disturbances. The modelization error is classified into an error caused by a mass property such as a weight, a center of gravity, or a tensor of inertia of the multi-link structure and an error caused by friction, inertia, or the like in the joint units 421 a to 421 f. Of these, the modelization error of the former caused by the mass property can be relatively easily reduced at the time of construction of the theoretical model by applying high-accuracy computer aided design (CAD) data or an identification method.

Meanwhile, the modelization error of the latter caused by friction, inertia, or the like in the joint units 421 a to 421 f occurs due to a phenomenon that it is difficult to modelize, for example, friction or the like in the reduction gear 426 of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, and an unignorable modelization error may remain at the time of construction of the theoretical model. Further, there is likely to be an error between a value of an inertia I_(a) or a viscous drag coefficient va in Equation (12) and an actual value in the joint units 421 a to 421 f. The error that is hardly modelized may act as a disturbance in the driving control of the joint units 421 a to 421 f. Thus, due to influence of such a disturbance, practically, there are cases in which motion of the joint units 421 a to 421 f does not respond as in the theoretical model expressed by Equation (12). Thus, there are cases in which it is difficult to achieve the purpose of motion of the control target even when the actual force τ_(a) serving as the joint force calculated by the generalized inverse dynamics is applied. In the present embodiment, an active control system is added to each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f, and thus the response of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is considered to be corrected such that an ideal response according to the theoretical model expressed by Equation (12) is performed. Specifically, in the present embodiment, torque control of a friction compensation type using the torque sensors 428 and 428 a of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is performed, and in addition, it is possible to perform an ideal response according to an ideal value even on the inertia I_(a) and the viscous drag coefficient ν_(a) for the requested generated torque τ_(a) and the requested external torque τ_(e).

In the present embodiment, controlling driving of the joint unit such that the joint units 421 a to 421 f of the robot arm apparatus 400 perform the ideal response expressed by Equation (12) is referred to as the ideal joint control as described above. Here, in the following description, an actuator whose driving is controlled by the ideal joint control is also referred to as a “virtualized actuator (VA)” since the ideal response is performed. The ideal joint control according to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for describing the ideal joint control according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a conceptual computing unit that performs various kinds of operations according to the ideal joint control using blocks.

Referring to FIG. 8, an actuator 610 schematically illustrates a mechanism of the actuator 430 illustrated in FIG. 8, and a motor 611, a reduction gear 612, an encoder 613, and a torque sensor 614 correspond to the motor 424, the reduction gear 426, the encoder 427, and the torque sensor 428 (or the torque sensor 428 a illustrated in FIG. 7B) which are illustrated in FIG. 6.

Here, when the actuator 610 performs the response according to the theoretical model expressed by Equation (12), it means that the rotational angular acceleration at the left side is achieved when the right side of Equation (12) is given. Further, as expressed in Equation (12), the theoretical model includes an external torque term τ_(e) acting on the actuator 610. In the present embodiment, in order to perform the ideal joint control, the external torque τ_(e) is measured by the torque sensor 614. Further, a disturbance observer 620 is applied to calculate a disturbance estimation value τ_(d) serving as an estimation value of torque caused by a disturbance based on a rotational angle q of the actuator 610 measured by the encoder 613.

A block 631 represents a computing unit that performs an operation according to the ideal joint model of the joint units 421 a to 421 f expressed by Equation (12). The block 631 can receive the generated torque τ_(a), the external torque τ_(e), and the rotational angular velocity (the first order differential of the rotational angle q) and output the rotational angular acceleration target value (a second order differential of a rotational angle target value q^(ref)) shown at the left side of Equation (12).

In the present embodiment, the generated torque τ_(a) calculated by the method described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and the external torque τ_(e) measured by the torque sensor 614 are input to the block 631. Meanwhile, the rotational angle q measured by the encoder 613 is input to a block 632 indicating a computing unit that performs differential operation, and thus the rotational angular velocity (the first order differential of the rotational angle q) is calculated. In addition to the generated torque τ_(a) and the external torque τ_(e), the rotational angular velocity calculated by the block 632 is input to the block 631, and thus the rotational angular acceleration target value is calculated by the block 631. The calculated rotational angular acceleration target value is input to a block 633.

The block 633 indicates a computing unit that calculates torque to be generated in the actuator 610 based on the rotational angular acceleration of the actuator 610. In the present embodiment, specifically, the block 633 can obtain a torque target value τ^(ref) by multiplying a nominal inertia J_(n) of the actuator 610 to the rotational angular acceleration target value. In the ideal response, a desired purpose of motion is achieved by causing the actuator 610 to generate the torque target value τ^(ref), but there are cases in which an actual response is influenced by a disturbance or the like as described above. Thus, in the present embodiment, the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) is calculated by the disturbance observer 620, and the torque target value τ^(ref) is corrected using the disturbance estimation value τ_(d).

A configuration of the disturbance observer 620 will be described. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the disturbance observer 620 calculates the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) based on a torque command value τ and the rotational angular velocity calculated from the rotational angle q measured by the encoder 613. Here, the torque command value τ is a torque value to be finally generated by the actuator 610 after influence of the disturbance is corrected. For example, when no disturbance estimation value τ_(d) is calculated, the torque command value τ is used as the torque target value τ^(ref).

The disturbance observer 620 is configured with a block 634 and a block 635. The block 634 is a computing unit that calculates torque to be generated by the actuator 610 based on the rotational angular velocity of the actuator 610. In the present embodiment, specifically, the rotational angular velocity calculated by the block 632 based on the rotational angle q measured by the encoder 613 is input to the block 634. The block 634 can obtain the rotational angular acceleration by performing an operation expressed by a transfer function J_(n)s, that is, by differentiating the rotational angular velocity, and calculate an estimation value (a torque estimation value) of torque actually acting on the actuator 610 by multiplying the calculated rotational angular acceleration by the nominal inertia J_(n).

In the disturbance observer 620, a difference between the torque estimation value and the torque command value τ is obtained, and thus the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) serving as a value of torque by a disturbance is estimated. Specifically, the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) may be a difference between the torque command value τ in the previous control and the torque estimation value in the current control. Since the torque estimation value calculated by the block 634 is based on an actual measurement value, and the torque command value τ calculated by the block 633 is based on the ideal theoretical model of the joint units 421 a to 421 f indicated by the block 631, it is possible to estimate influence of a disturbance that is not considered in the theoretical model by obtaining the difference of the two values.

The disturbance observer 620 is further provided with a low pass filter (LPF) indicated by the block 635 in order to prevent a divergence of a system. The block 635 performs an operation represented by a transfer function g/(s+g), outputs only a low frequency component in response to an input value, and stabilizes a system. In the present embodiment, a difference value between the torque estimation value calculated by the block 634 and the torque command value τ^(ref) is input to the block 635, and the low frequency component is calculated as the disturbance estimation value τ_(d).

In the present embodiment, feedforward control of adding the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) calculated by the disturbance observer 620 to the torque target value τ^(ref) is performed, and thus the torque command value τ serving as a torque value to be finally generated by the actuator 610 is calculated. Then, the actuator 610 is driven based on the torque command value τ. Specifically, the torque command value τ is converted into a corresponding electric current value (an electric current command value), the electric current command value is applied to the motor 611, so that the actuator 610 is driven.

By employing the configuration described above with reference to FIG. 8, in the driving control of the joint units 421 a to 421 f according to the present embodiment, even when there is a disturbance component such as friction, it is possible for the response of the actuator 610 to follow the target value. Further, it is possible to perform the ideal response according to the inertia I_(a) and the viscous drag coefficient ν_(a) assumed by the theoretical model in the driving control of the joint units 421 a to 421 f.

For example, JP 2009-269102A that is a patent application previously filed by the present applicant can be referred to for the details of the above-described ideal joint control.

The ideal joint control according to the present embodiment has been described above with reference to FIG. 8 together with the generalized inverse dynamics used in the present embodiment. As described above, in the present embodiment, the whole body cooperative control of calculating driving parameters (for example, the generated torque values of the joint units 421 a to 421 f) of the joint units 421 a to 421 f for achieving the purpose of motion of the arm unit 420 is performed in view of the constraint condition using the generalized inverse dynamics. Further, as described above with reference to FIG. 8, in the present embodiment, as correction in which influence of a disturbance is considered is performed on the generated torque value calculated by the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics, the ideal joint control of implementing the ideal response based on the theoretical model in the driving control of the joint units 421 a to 421 f is performed. Thus, in the present embodiment, it is possible to perform high-accuracy driving control for achieving the purpose of motion for driving of the arm unit 420.

5-2-4. Configuration of Robot Arm Control System

Next, a configuration of the robot arm control system according to the present embodiment in which the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and (5-2-3. Ideal joint control) are applied to the driving control of the robot arm apparatus will be described.

An exemplary configuration of the robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of the robot arm control system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the robot arm control system illustrated in FIG. 9, components related to driving control of the arm unit of the robot arm apparatus are mainly illustrated.

Referring to FIG. 9, a robot arm control system 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a robot arm apparatus 10, a control device 20, and a display device 30. In the present embodiment, various kinds of operations in the whole body cooperative control described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and the ideal joint control described in (5-2-3. Ideal joint control) through the control device 20 are performed, and driving of the arm unit of the robot arm apparatus 10 is controlled based on the operation result. Further, the arm unit of the robot arm apparatus 10 is provided with an imaging unit 140 which will be described later, and an image captured by the imaging unit 140 is displayed on a display screen of the display device 30. Next, configurations of the robot arm apparatus 10, the control device 20, and the display device 30 will be described in detail. Note that the robot arm control system 1 illustrated in FIG. 9 corresponds to the robot arm control system 2 described with reference to FIG. 1.

The robot arm apparatus 10 includes an arm unit having a multi-link structure configured with a plurality of joint units and a plurality of links, and drives the arm unit in the movable range to control the position and posture of the front edge unit installed at the front edge of the arm unit. The robot arm apparatus 10 corresponds to the robot arm apparatus 400 illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B.

Referring to FIG. 9, the robot arm apparatus 10 includes an arm control unit 110 and an arm unit 120. The arm unit 120 includes a joint unit 130 and the imaging unit 140.

The arm control unit 110 controls the robot arm apparatus 10 in an integrated manner, and controls driving of the arm unit 120. The arm control unit 110 corresponds to the control unit (not illustrated in FIG. 5) described above with reference to FIG. 5. Specifically, the arm control unit 110 includes a drive control unit 111, and controls driving of the arm unit 120, and driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled by controlling driving of the joint unit 130 according to control of the drive control unit 111. More specifically, the drive control unit 111 controls the number of revolutions of the motor in the actuator of the joint unit 130 and the rotational angle and the generated torque of the joint unit 130 by controlling an amount of electric current supplied to the motor. Here, as described above, driving control of the arm unit 120 by the drive control unit 111 is performed based on the operation result in the control device 20. Thus, an amount of electric current that is controlled by the drive control unit 111 and supplied to the motor in the actuator of the joint unit 130 is an amount of electric current decided based on the operation result in the control device 20. However, in the present embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the joint control unit 135 may also be provided in each joint unit 130, and the driving of joint unit 130 may be controlled by the joint control unit 135.

The arm unit 120 has a multi-link structure configured with a plurality of joint units and a plurality of links, and driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled according to control of the arm control unit 110. The arm unit 120 corresponds to the arm unit 420 illustrated in FIG. 5. The arm unit 120 includes the joint unit 130 and the imaging unit 140. Further, since the plurality of joint units of the arm unit 120 have the same function and configuration, a configuration of one joint unit 130 representing the plurality of joint units is illustrated in FIG. 9.

The joint unit 130 connects links to be rotatable in the arm unit 120, and the rotary driving of the joint unit 130 is controlled according to control of the arm control unit 110 such that the arm unit 120 is driven. The joint unit 130 corresponds to the joint units 421 a to 421 f illustrated in FIG. 5. Further, the joint unit 130 includes an actuator, and the actuator has a configuration similar to, for example, the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7A, and 7B.

The joint unit 130 includes a joint driving unit 131 and a joint state detecting unit 132.

The joint driving unit 131 is a driving mechanism in the actuator of the joint unit 130, and as the joint driving unit 131 is driven, the joint unit 130 is rotationally driven. The drive control unit 111 controls driving of the joint driving unit 131. For example, the joint driving unit 131 is a component corresponding to the motor 424 and the motor driver 425 illustrated in FIG. 8, and driving the joint driving unit 131 corresponds to the motor driver 425 driving the motor 424 with an amount of electric current according to a command given from the drive control unit 111.

The joint state detecting unit 132 detects the state of the joint unit 130. Here, the state of the joint unit 130 may mean a motion state of the joint unit 130. For example, the state of the joint unit 130 includes information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, the rotational angular acceleration, and the generated torque of the joint unit 130. In the present embodiment, the joint state detecting unit 132 includes a rotational angle detecting unit 133 that detects the rotational angle of the joint unit 130 and a torque detecting unit 134 that detects the generated torque and the external torque of the joint unit 130. The rotational angle detecting unit 133 and the torque detecting unit 134 correspond to the encoder 427 of the actuator 430 illustrated in FIG. 6 and the torque sensors 428 and 428 a illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B. The joint state detecting unit 132 transmits the detected state of the joint unit 130 to the control device 20.

The imaging unit 140 is an example of the front edge unit installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120, and acquires an image of a photographing target. The imaging unit 140 corresponds to the imaging unit 423 illustrated in FIG. 5. Specifically, the imaging unit 140 is, for example, a camera capable of photographing a photographing target in a moving image format or a still image format. More specifically, the imaging unit 140 includes a plurality of light receiving elements arranged two dimensionally, and can perform photoelectric conversion in the light receiving elements and acquire an image signal indicating an image of a photographing target. The imaging unit 140 transmits the acquired image signal to the display device 30.

Further, similarly to the robot arm apparatus 400 of FIG. 5 in which the imaging unit 423 is installed at the front edge of the arm unit 420, in the robot arm apparatus 10, the imaging unit 140 is actually installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120. In FIG. 9, the form in which the imaging unit 140 is installed at the front edge of the last link through the plurality of joint units 130 and a plurality of links is represented by schematically illustrating the link between the joint unit 130 and the imaging unit 140. Further, in the present embodiment, various kinds of medical apparatuses may be connected to the front edge of the arm unit 120 as the front edge unit. As the medical apparatus, for example, there are various kinds of units used when the medical procedure is performed such as various kinds of medical procedure instruments including a scalpel or forceps or one unit of various kinds of examination apparatuses including a probe of an ultrasonic examination apparatus. Further, in the present embodiment, the imaging unit 140 illustrated in FIG. 9 or a unit having an imaging function such as an endoscope or a microscope may also be included as a medical apparatus. As described above, the robot arm apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment may be a medical robot arm apparatus including a medical apparatus. Similarly, the robot arm control system 1 according to the present embodiment may be a medical robot arm control system. Note that the robot arm apparatus 10 illustrated in FIG. 9 may also be said to be a video microscope robot arm apparatus equipped with a unit having an imaging function as the front edge unit. Further, a stereo camera including two imaging units (camera units) may be installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120, and photography may be performed so that an imaging target is displayed as a 3D image.

The function and configuration of the robot arm apparatus 10 have been described above. Next, a function and configuration of the control device 20 will be described. Referring to FIG. 9, the control device 20 includes an input unit 210, a storage unit 220, and a control unit 230.

The control unit 230 controls the control device 20 in an integrated manner, and performs various kinds of operations for controlling driving of the arm unit 120 in the robot arm apparatus 10. Specifically, in order to control driving of the arm unit 120 of the robot arm apparatus 10, the control unit 230 performs various kinds of operations in the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control. The function and configuration of the control unit 230 will be described below in detail, but the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control have already been described in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics) and (5-2-3. Ideal joint control), and thus a description thereof will be omitted here.

The control unit 230 includes a whole body cooperative control unit 240, an ideal joint control unit 250, and a reference position deriving unit 260.

The whole body cooperative control unit 240 performs various kinds of operations related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. In the present embodiment, the whole body cooperative control unit 240 acquires a state (an arm state) of the arm unit 120 based on the state of the joint unit 130 detected by the joint state detecting unit 132. Further, the whole body cooperative control unit 240 calculates a control value for the whole body cooperative control of the arm unit 120 in the operation space based on the arm state and the purpose of motion and the constraint condition of the arm unit 120 using the generalized inverse dynamics. For example, the operation space refers to a space for describing a relation between force acting on the arm unit 120 and acceleration generated in the arm unit 120.

The whole body cooperative control unit 240 includes an arm state acquiring unit 241, an operation condition setting unit 242, a virtual force calculating unit 243, and an actual force calculating unit 244. Herein, in FIG. 1 discussed earlier, the arm state acquiring unit 241 is illustrated as a function included in the reference position deriving unit 260 for the sake of convenience, but these units have similar functions.

The arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the state (the arm state) of the arm unit 120 based on the state of the joint unit 130 detected by the joint state detecting unit 132. Here, the arm state may mean the motion state of the arm unit 120. For example, the arm state includes information such as a position, a speed, acceleration, or force of the arm unit 120. As described above, the joint state detecting unit 132 acquires information such as the rotational angle, the rotational angular velocity, the rotational angular acceleration, or the generated torque of each of the joint units 130 as the state of the joint unit 130. Further, as will be described later, the storage unit 220 stores various kinds of information that is processed by the control device 20, and in the present embodiment, the storage unit 220 may store various kinds of information (arm information) related to the arm unit 120, for example, the number of joint units 130 and the number of links configuring the arm unit 120, a connection state of the link and the joint unit 130, and the length of the link. The arm state acquiring unit 241 can acquire the corresponding information from the storage unit 220. Thus, the arm state acquiring unit 241 can acquire information such as the positions (coordinates) of the plurality of joint units 130, a plurality of links, and the imaging unit 140 on the space (that is, the shape of the arm unit 120 or the position and posture of the imaging unit 140) or force acting on each of the joint units 130, the link, and the imaging unit 140 based on the state of the joint unit 130 and the arm information. The arm state acquiring unit 241 transmits the acquired arm information to the operation condition setting unit 242.

The operation condition setting unit 242 sets an operation condition in an operation related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. Here, the operation condition may be the purpose of motion and the constraint condition. The purpose of motion may be various kinds of information related to a motion of the arm unit 120. Specifically, the purpose of motion may be a target value of the position and posture (coordinates), a speed, acceleration, and force of the imaging unit 140 or a target value of the position (coordinates), a speed, acceleration, and force of the plurality of joint units 130 and a plurality of links of the arm unit 120. The constraint condition may be various kinds of information for constricting the motion of the arm unit 120. Specifically, the constraint condition may be coordinates of a region into which none of the components of the arm unit should move, values of a speed and acceleration at which the arm unit should not move, a value of force that should not be generated, or the like. Further, a constraint range of various kinds of physical quantities in the constraint condition may be set from ones that are difficult for the arm unit 120 to implement structurally or may be appropriately set by the user. Further, the operation condition setting unit 242 includes a physical model (for example, one in which the number of links configuring the arm unit 120, the length of the link, the connection state of the link through the joint unit 130, the movable range of the joint unit 130, and the like are modelized) for the structure of the arm unit 120, and may set the motion condition and the constraint condition by generating a control model in which a desired motion condition and a desired constraint condition are reflected in the physical model.

In the present embodiment, it is possible to appropriately set the purpose of motion and the constraint condition and cause the arm unit 120 to perform a desired movement. For example, it is possible to set the target value of the position of the imaging unit 140 as the purpose of motion and move the imaging unit 140 to the target position, and it is also possible to set a movement constraint according to the constraint condition, for example, to prevent the arm unit 120 from invading a certain region in a space and then drive the arm unit 120.

As a specific example of the purpose of motion, for example, the purpose of motion may be a pivot movement serving as a turning movement in which the imaging unit 140 moves within a plane of a cone having a medical procedure part as an apex, and an axis of the cone is used as a pivot axis in a state in which the photographing direction of the imaging unit 140 is fixed to the medical procedure part. In the pivot movement, the turning movement may be performed in a state in which a distance between the imaging unit 140 and a point corresponding to the apex of the cone is maintained constant. As the pivot movement is performed, it is possible to observe an observation part at an equal distance and at different angles, and thus it is possible to improve a convenience of the user performing surgery.

Another specific example, the purpose of motion may be content controlling the generated torque in each of the joint units 130. Specifically, the purpose of motion may be a power assist movement of controlling the state of the joint unit 130 such that gravity acting on the arm unit 120 is negated and controlling the state of the joint unit 130 such that movement of the arm unit 120 is supported in a direction of force given from the outside. More specifically, in the power assist movement, driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled such that each of the joint units 130 generates the generated torque for negating external torque by gravity in each of the joint units 130 of the arm unit 120, and thus the position and posture of the arm unit 120 are held in a certain state. When external torque is further applied from the outside (for example, from the user) in this state, driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled such that each of the joint units 1 generates the generated torque in the same direction as the applied external torque. As the power assist movement is performed, when the user manually moves the arm unit 120, the user can move the arm unit 120 by small force, and thus a feeling of moving the arm unit 120 in a non-gravity state can be given to the user. Further, it is possible to combine the pivot movement with the power assist movement.

Here, in the present embodiment, the purpose of motion may mean a movement (motion) of the arm unit 120 implemented in the whole body cooperative control or may mean an instantaneous purpose of motion (that is, the target value in the purpose of motion) in the corresponding movement. For example, in the case of the pivot movement, performing the pivot movement by the imaging unit 140 is the purpose of motion, but, for example, a value of the position or the speed of the imaging unit 140 in the cone plane in the pivot movement is set as an instantaneous purpose of motion (the target value in the purpose of motion) while the pivot movement is being performed. Further, for example, in the case of the power assist movement, performing the power assist movement for supporting movement of the arm unit 120 in the direction of force applied from the outside is the purpose of motion, but a value of the generated torque in the same direction as the external torque applied to each of the joint units 130 is set as an instantaneous purpose of motion (the target value in the purpose of motion) while the power assist movement is being performed. In the present embodiment, the purpose of motion is a concept including both the instantaneous purpose of motion (for example, the target value of the position, the speed, or force of each component of the arm unit 120 during a certain period of time) and movement of each component of the arm unit 120 implemented over time as a result of continuously achieving the instantaneous purpose of motion. In each step in an operation for the whole body cooperative control in the whole body cooperative control unit 240, the instantaneous purpose of motion is set each time, and the operation is repeatedly performed, so that a desired purpose of motion is finally achieved.

Further, in the present embodiment, when the purpose of motion is set, the viscous drag coefficient in the rotary motion of each of the joint units 130 may be appropriately set as well. As described above, the joint unit 130 according to the present embodiment is configured to be able to appropriately adjust the viscous drag coefficient in the rotary motion of the actuator 430. Thus, as the viscous drag coefficient in the rotary motion of each of the joint units 130 is also set at the time of setting of the purpose of motion, for example, it is possible to implement the state in which rotation is easily or not easily performed by force applied from the outside. For example, in the case of the power assist movement, as the viscous drag coefficient in the joint unit 130 is set to be small, the user can move the arm unit 120 by small force, and the user can have a non-gravity feeling. As described above, the viscous drag coefficient in the rotary motion of each of the joint units 130 may be appropriately set according to content of the purpose of motion. The specific examples of the purpose of motion will be described again in detail in (5-2-5. Specific example of purpose of motion).

Here, in the present embodiment, as will be described later, the storage unit 220 may store a parameter related to the operation condition such as the purpose of motion or the constraint condition used in an operation related to the whole body cooperative control. The operation condition setting unit 242 can set the constraint condition stored in the storage unit 220 as the constraint condition used in the operation of the whole body cooperative control.

Further, in the present embodiment, the operation condition setting unit 242 can set the purpose of motion by a plurality of methods. For example, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion based on the arm state transmitted from the arm state acquiring unit 241. As described above, the arm state includes information of the position of the arm unit 120 and information of force acting on the arm unit 120. Thus, for example, when the user manually moves the arm unit 120, information related to how the user moves the arm unit 120 is also acquired as the arm state through the arm state acquiring unit 241. Thus, the operation condition setting unit 242 can set, for example, the position to which the user has moved the arm unit 120, a speed at which the user has moved the arm unit 120, or force by which the user has moved the arm unit 120 as the instantaneous purpose of motion based on the acquired arm state. As the purpose of motion is set as described above, control is performed such that driving of the arm unit 120 follows and supports movement of the arm unit 120 by the user.

Further, for example, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion based on an instruction input from the input unit 210 by the user. As will be described later, the input unit 210 is an input interface through which the user inputs, for example, information or a command related to driving control of the robot arm apparatus 10 to the control device 20, and in the present embodiment, the purpose of motion may be set based on an operation input from the input unit 210 by the user. Specifically, the input unit 210 includes an operation unit operated by the user such as a lever or a pedal, and, for example, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the position or the speed of each component of the arm unit 120 as the instantaneous purpose of motion according to an operation of the lever, the pedal, or the like.

Further, for example, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion stored in the storage unit 220 as the purpose of motion used in the operation of the whole body cooperative control. For example, in the case of the purpose of motion for causing the imaging unit 140 to stop at a certain point in the space, coordinates of the certain point can be set as the purpose of motion in advance. Further, for example, in the case of the purpose of motion for causing the imaging unit 140 to move along a certain trajectory in the space, coordinates of points indicating the certain trajectory can be set as the purpose of motion in advance. As described above, when the purpose of motion can be set in advance, the purpose of motion may be stored in the storage unit 220 in advance. Further, for example, in the case of the pivot movement, the purpose of motion is limited to setting a position, a speed, or the like in the plane of the cone as the target value, and in the case of the power assist movement, the purpose of motion is limited to setting force as the target value. As described above, when the purpose of motion such as the pivot movement or the power assist movement is set in advance, for example, information related to a range or a type of the target value that can be set as the instantaneous purpose of motion in the purpose of motion may be stored in the storage unit 220. The operation condition setting unit 242 can include and set various kinds of information related to the purpose of motion as the purpose of motion.

Further, the user may appropriately set the method of setting the purpose of motion through the operation condition setting unit 242, for example, according to the purpose of the robot arm apparatus 10. Further, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion and the constraint condition by appropriately combining the above methods. Furthermore, a priority of the purpose of motion may be set to the constraint condition stored in the storage unit 220, and when there are a plurality of different purposes of motion, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion according to the priority of the constraint condition. The operation condition setting unit 242 transmits the arm state, the set purpose of motion and the constraint condition to the virtual force calculating unit 243.

The virtual force calculating unit 243 calculates virtual force in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. For example, a virtual force calculation process performed by the virtual force calculating unit 243 may be a series of processes described above in (5-2-2-1. Virtual force calculating process). The virtual force calculating unit 243 transmits the calculated virtual force f_(v) to the actual force calculating unit 244.

The actual force calculating unit 244 calculates actual force in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. For example, an actual force calculation process performed by the actual force calculating unit 244 may be a series of processes described above in (5-2-2-2. Actual force calculating process). The actual force calculating unit 244 transmits the calculated actual force (the generated torque) τ_(a) to the ideal joint control unit 250. Further, in the present embodiment, the generated torque τ_(a) calculated by the actual force calculating unit 244 is also referred to as a “control value” or a “control torque value” to mean a control value of the joint unit 130 in the whole body cooperative control.

The ideal joint control unit 250 performs various kinds of operations related to the ideal joint control for implementing the ideal response based on the theoretical model. In the present embodiment, the ideal joint control unit 250 corrects influence of a disturbance on the generated torque τ_(a) calculated by the actual force calculating unit 244, and calculates the torque command value τ for implementing the ideal response of the arm unit 120. The operation process performed by the ideal joint control unit 250 corresponds to a series of processes described above in (5-2-3. Ideal joint control).

The ideal joint control unit 250 includes a disturbance estimating unit 251 and a command value calculating unit 252.

The disturbance estimating unit 251 calculates the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) based on the torque command value τ and the rotational angular velocity calculated from the rotational angle q detected by the rotational angle detecting unit 133. Here, the torque command value τ refers to the command value indicating the generated torque of the arm unit 120 that is finally transmitted to the robot arm apparatus 10. As described above, the disturbance estimating unit 251 has a function corresponding to the disturbance observer 620 illustrated in FIG. 8.

The command value calculating unit 252 calculates the torque command value τ serving as the command value indicating torque that is generated by the arm unit 120 and finally transmitted to the robot arm apparatus 10 using the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) calculated by the disturbance estimating unit 251. Specifically, the command value calculating unit 252 calculates the torque command value τ by adding the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) calculated by the disturbance estimating unit 251 to τ^(ref) calculated from the ideal model of the joint unit 130 expressed by Equation (12). For example, when the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) is not calculated, the torque command value τ is used as the torque target value τ^(ref). As described above, the function of the command value calculating unit 252 corresponds to a function other than that of the disturbance observer 620 illustrated in FIG. 8.

As described above, in the ideal joint control unit 250, a series of processes described above with reference to FIG. 8 is performed such that information is repeatedly exchanged between the disturbance estimating unit 251 and the command value calculating unit 252. The ideal joint control unit 250 transmits the calculated torque command value τ to the drive control unit 111 of the robot arm apparatus 10. The drive control unit 111 performs control of supplying an amount of electric current corresponding to the transmitted torque command value τ to the motor in the actuator of the joint unit 130, controls the number of revolutions of the motor, and controls the rotational angle and the generated torque of the joint unit 130.

In the robot arm control system 1 according to the present embodiment, since driving control of the arm unit 120 in the robot arm apparatus 10 is continuously performed while a task using the arm unit 120 is being performed, the above-described process is repeatedly performed in the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. In other words, the joint state detecting unit 132 of the robot arm apparatus 10 detects the state of the joint unit 130, and transmits the detected state of the joint unit 130 to the control device 20. In the control device 20, various kinds of operations related to the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control for controlling driving of the arm unit 120 are performed based on the state of the joint unit 130, the purpose of motion, and the constraint condition, and the torque command value τ serving as the operation result is transmitted to the robot arm apparatus 10. In the robot arm apparatus 10, driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled based on the torque command value τ, and the state of the joint unit 130 during or after driving is detected by the joint state detecting unit 132 again.

The reference position deriving unit 260 derives the reference position, which is a point that serves as a base of reference in the observation of a target object by the imaging unit 140. Herein, since the functions of the reference position deriving unit 260 are described in detail in the above <2. Configuration of robot arm control system>, detailed description will be reduced or omitted at this point. Information about the reference position derived by the reference position deriving unit 260 is provided to the operation condition setting unit 242 or stored in the storage unit 220, for example. The operation condition setting unit 242 uses the reference position to set a constraint condition so that the reference position becomes the pivot center point, for example, and thus a control causing a pivot operation to be realized is computed by the virtual force calculating unit 243 and the actual force calculating unit 244.

The description of the other components of the control device 20 will now continue.

The input unit 210 is an input interface through which the user inputs, for example, information or a command related to driving control of the robot arm apparatus 10 to the control device 20. In the present embodiment, based on an operation input from the input unit 210 by the user, driving of the arm unit 120 of the robot arm apparatus 10 may be controlled, and the position and posture of the imaging unit 140 may be controlled. Specifically, as described above, as the user inputs instruction information related to an instruction of arm driving input from the input unit 210 to the operation condition setting unit 242, the operation condition setting unit 242 may set the purpose of motion in the whole body cooperative control based on the instruction information. As described above, the whole body cooperative control is performed using the purpose of motion based on the instruction information input by the user, and thus driving of the arm unit 120 according to the user's operation input is implemented.

Specifically, the input unit 210 includes an operation unit operated by the user such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, a button, a switch, a lever, and a pedal, for example. For example, when the input unit 210 includes a pedal, the user can control driving of the arm unit 120 by operating the pedal by foot. Thus, even when the user performs a treatment on the patient's medical procedure part using both hands, it is possible to adjust the position and posture of the imaging unit 140, that is, the photographing position or the photographing angle of the medical procedure part through an operation of the pedal by foot.

The storage unit 220 stores various kinds of pieces of information that are processed by the control device 20. In the present embodiment, the storage unit 220 can store various kinds of parameters used in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control performed by the control unit 230. For example, the storage unit 220 may store the purpose of motion and the constraint condition used in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control performed by the whole body cooperative control unit 240. The purpose of motion stored in the storage unit 220 may be a purpose of motion that can be set in advance so that the imaging unit 140 can stop at a certain point in the space as described above, for example. Further, the constraint condition may be set by the user in advance according to the geometric configuration of the arm unit 120, the purpose of the robot arm apparatus 10, or the like and then stored in the storage unit 220. Furthermore, the storage unit 220 may store various kinds of information related to the arm unit 120 used when the arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the arm state. Moreover, the storage unit 220 may store, for example, the operation result in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control performed by the control unit 230 and numerical values calculated in the operation process. As described above, the storage unit 220 may store all parameters related to various kinds of processes performed by the control unit 230, and the control unit 230 can perform various kinds of processes while transmitting or receiving information to or from the storage unit 220.

The function and configuration of the control device 20 have been described above. The control device 20 according to the present embodiment may be configured, for example, with various kinds of information processing devices (arithmetic processing devices) such as a personal computer (PC) or a server. Next, a function and configuration of the display device 30 will be described.

The display device 30 displays various kinds of information on the display screen in various formats such as text or an image, and visually notifies the user of the information. In the present embodiment, the display device 30 displays an image captured by the imaging unit 140 of the robot arm apparatus 10 through the display screen. Specifically, the display device 30 includes a function or component such as an image signal processing unit (not illustrated) that performs various kinds of image processing on the image signal acquired by the imaging unit 140 or a display control unit (not illustrated) that performs control such that an image based on the processed image signal is displayed on the display screen. Further, the display device 30 may have various kinds of functions and components that are equipped in a general display device in addition to the above function or component. The display device 30 corresponds to the display device 550 illustrated in FIG. 4.

The functions and configurations of the robot arm apparatus 10, the control device 20, and the display device 30 according to the present embodiment have been described above with reference to FIG. 9. Each of the above components may be configured using a versatile member or circuit, and may be configured by hardware specialized for the function of each component. Further, all the functions of the components may be performed by a CPU or the like. Thus, a configuration to be used may be appropriately changed according to a technology level when the present embodiment is carried out.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the arm unit 120 having the multi-link structure in the robot arm apparatus 10 has at least 6 or more degrees of freedom, and driving of each of the plurality of joint units 130 configuring the arm unit 120 is controlled by the drive control unit 111. Further, the medical apparatus is installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120. As driving of each joint unit 130 is controlled as described above, driving control of the arm unit 120 having a high degree of freedom is implemented, and the robot arm apparatus 10 for medical use having high operability for a user is implemented.

More specifically, according to the present embodiment, in the robot arm apparatus 10, the state of the joint unit 130 is detected by the joint state detecting unit 132. Further, in the control device 20, based on the state of the joint unit 130, the purpose of motion, and the constraint condition, various kinds of operations related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics for controlling driving of the arm unit 120 are performed, and torque command value τ serving as the operation result are calculated. Furthermore, in the robot arm apparatus 10, driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled based on the torque command value τ. As described above, in the present embodiment, driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled by the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. Thus, driving control of the arm unit 120 according to the force control is implemented, and the robot arm apparatus having the high operability for the user is implemented. Further, in the present embodiment, in the whole body cooperative control, for example, control for implementing various kinds of purposes of motion for improving user convenience such as the pivot movement and the power assist movement can be performed. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, for example, various driving units for moving the arm unit 120 manually or through an operation input from a pedal are implemented, and thus user convenience is further improved.

Further, in the present embodiment, the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control are applied to driving control of the arm unit 120. In the ideal joint control, a disturbance component such as friction or inertia in the joint unit 130 is estimated, and feedforward control is performed using the estimated disturbance component. Thus, even when there is a disturbance component such as friction, the ideal response can be implemented on driving of the joint unit 130. Thus, small influence of vibration or the like, high-accuracy responsiveness, and high positioning accuracy or stability are implemented in driving control of the arm unit 120.

Further, in the present embodiment, each of the plurality of joint units 130 configuring the arm unit 120 has a configuration suitable for the ideal joint control illustrated in FIG. 6, for example, and the rotational angle, the generated torque and the viscous drag coefficient of each of the joint units 130 can be controlled according to an electric current value. As described above, driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled according to an electric current value, and driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled according to the whole body cooperative control while detecting the entire state of the arm unit 120, and thus the counter balance is unnecessary, and the small robot arm apparatus 10 is implemented.

5-2-5. Specific Example of Purpose of Motion

Next, a specific example of the purpose of motion according to the present embodiment will be described. As described above in (5-2-4. Configuration of the robot arm control system), in the present embodiment, various kinds of purposes of motion are implemented by the whole body cooperative control. Here, as a specific example of the purpose of motion according to the present embodiment, the power assist movement and the pivot movement will be described. In the following description of the specific example of the purpose of motion, components of the robot arm control system according to the present embodiment are indicated using reference numerals in the functional block diagram illustrated in FIG. 9.

The power assist movement is a movement of controlling the state of the joint unit 130 such that gravity acting on the arm unit 120 is negated and controlling the state of the joint unit 130 such that movement of the arm unit 120 in a direction of force applied from the outside is supported. Specifically, when the user manually moves the arm unit 120, the power assist movement is a movement of controlling driving of the arm unit 120 such that force applied by the user is supported. More specifically, in order to implement the power assist movement, first, external torque is detected by the torque detecting unit 134 in a state in which no force other than gravity acts on the arm unit 120, and the instantaneous purpose of motion is set so that the generated torque for negating the detected external torque is generated by each of the joint units 130. At this stage, the position and posture of the arm unit 120 are held in a certain state. When external torque is further applied from the outside (for example, from the user) in this state, additionally applied external torque is detected by the torque detecting unit 134, and the instantaneous purpose of motion is further set such that each of the joint units 130 generates generated torque in the same direction as the detected additional external torque. As driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled according to the instantaneous purpose of motion, the power assist movement is implemented. Through the power assist movement, the user can move the arm unit by small force, and thus the user can have a feeling of moving the arm unit 120 in a non-gravity state, and the operability of the arm unit 120 by the user is improved.

The pivot movement is a turning movement in which the front edge unit installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120 moves on a plane of a cone having a certain point in the space as an apex in a state in which a direction of the front edge unit is fixed on the certain point, and an axis of the cone is used as a pivot axis. Specifically, when the front edge unit is the imaging unit 140, the pivot movement is a turning movement in which the imaging unit 140 installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120 moves on a plane of a cone having a certain point in a space as an apex in a state in which the photographing direction of the imaging unit 140 is fixed on the certain point, and an axis of the cone is used as a pivot axis. As a point corresponding to the apex of the cone in the pivot movement, for example, the medical procedure part is selected. Further, in the pivot movement, the turning movement may be performed in a state in which a distance between the front edge unit or the imaging unit 140 and the point corresponding to the apex of the cone is maintained constant. Further, since the direction of the front edge unit or the photographing direction of the imaging unit 140 is fixed on a certain point (for example, the medical procedure part) in the space, the pivot movement is also referred to as a “point lock movement.”

The pivot movement will be described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for describing the pivot movement that is a specific example of the arm movement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram for describing the purpose of motion and the constraint condition for implementing the pivot movement illustrated in FIG. 10.

Referring to FIG. 10, a medical procedure part on a patient 750 is set as an apex in the pivot movement. The apex is referred to as a “pivot point P_(i).” In FIG. 10, for the sake of convenience, in the robot arm apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, an imaging unit 713 serving as a unit corresponding to the imaging unit 140 of FIG. 9 is illustrated. As illustrated in FIG. 10, in the pivot movement, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition may be set so that the imaging unit 713 can move on a circumference of a bottom of a cone A, that is, the imaging unit 713 moves within a plane of the cone A in a state in which a distance between the imaging unit 713 and the pivot point P_(i) is maintained constant. Further, the shape of the cone A, that is, an angle θ of an apex of the cone A or a distance between the pivot point P_(i) and the imaging unit 713, may be appropriately set by the user. For example, the distance between the pivot point P_(i) and the imaging unit 713 is adjusted to a focal distance of an optical system in the imaging unit 713. As the pivot movement is applied, the medical procedure part can be observed at an equal distance at different angles, and thus convenience for the user who performs surgery can be improved.

Further, in the pivot movement, it is possible to move the position of the cone in which the imaging unit 713 is movable in a state in which the pivot point P_(i) is fixed as in the cones A and B. In the example illustrated in FIG. 10, the pivot axis of the cone A is substantially perpendicular to the medical procedure part, and the pivot axis of the cone B is substantially parallel to the medical procedure part. As described above, for example, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition may be set so that the cone for performing the pivot movement can be rotated by about 90° in a state in which the pivot point P_(i) is fixed such as the cones A and B. As the pivot movement is applied, it is possible to observe the medical procedure part from more directions, and thus the convenience for the user can be further improved.

The example illustrated in FIG. 10 illustrates an example in which the purpose of motion and the constraint condition are set so that the imaging unit 713 can move on the circumference of the bottom of the cone A, but the pivot movement according to the present embodiment is not limited to this example. For example, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition may be set so that the distance between the pivot point P_(i) and the imaging unit 713 can be freely changed in a state in which the position of the pivot point P_(i) and the angles 8 of the apexes of the cones A and B are fixed. As the pivot movement is applied, it is possible to change the distance between the imaging unit 713 and the medical procedure part in a state in which the angle is fixed, and thus it is possible to observe the medical procedure part according to the user's desire, for example, to enlarge or reduce the medical procedure part and then observe the enlarged or reduced medical procedure part by appropriately adjusting the focal distance (focus) of the imaging unit 713.

Next, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition for implementing the pivot movement illustrated in FIG. 10 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 11. Referring to FIG. 11, an example in which an arm unit 710 including the imaging unit 713 performs the pivot movement using the pivot point P_(i) as a base point. In FIG. 11, the pivot movement in which the distance between the imaging unit 713 and the pivot point P_(i) is maintained constant will be described as an example. The arm unit 710 includes a plurality of joint units 711 a, 711 b, and 711 c and a plurality of links 712 a, 712 b, and 712 c, and driving of the arm unit 710 is controlled according to the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control according to the present embodiment. For example, the arm unit 710 and the components thereof have the same configurations as the arm unit 420 and the components according to the present embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5.

Here, an arm coordinate system in which an origin OA serving as a supporting point of the arm unit 710 is used as a zero point and a space coordinate system in which an origin Os in a space is used as a zero point are considered. The motion of the arm unit 710 is managed by the arm coordinate system. Further, the arm coordinate system and the space coordinate system are defined such that they can be converted into each other.

An imaging center viewed from the space coordinate system is indicated by P_(w). Further, in the arm coordinate system, a position away from the joint unit 711 c connecting the imaging unit 713 with the link 712 c by a length D of the imaging unit 713 and a focal distance f of the imaging unit 713 is referred to as a pivot point P_(i).

In this state, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition are set so that the arm unit 710 is driven in a state in which the pivot point P_(i) matches the imaging center P_(w). In other words, the constraint of fixing the pivot point P_(i) in the arm coordinate system is fixed to the imaging center P_(w) in the space coordinate system is set in the arm coordinate system. Further, coordinates at which the imaging unit 713 is positioned on the plane of the cone having the pivot point P_(i) (that is, the imaging center P_(w)) as an apex or the position of the imaging unit 713 at which the imaging unit 713 faces the pivot point P_(i) is set as the purpose of motion. As the whole body cooperative control is performed under the constraint condition and the purpose of motion, even when the position and posture of the imaging unit 713 are changed by the movement of the arm unit 710, the direction of the imaging unit 713 consistently faces the imaging center P_(w) (that is, the pivot point P_(i)), and the distance between the imaging unit 713 and the imaging center P_(w) is maintained to have the focal distance f. Thus, the pivot movement in the state in which the distance between the imaging unit 713 and the imaging center P_(w) is maintained constant is implemented. When the pivot movement is performed while changing the distance between the imaging unit 713 and the imaging center P_(w) (or the pivot point P_(i)), it is desirable to change the setting method of the pivot point P_(i). Specifically, for example, in the arm coordinate system, it is desirable to set the position away from the joint unit 711 c by the length D of the imaging unit 713 and an arbitrary distance as the pivot point P_(i) and use the arbitrary distance a variable parameter.

Further, a combination of the pivot movement and the power assist movement may be used. When a combination of the pivot movement and the power assist movement is used, for example, when the user manually moves the imaging unit 140, the user can move the imaging unit 140 with small power due to a feeling of moving the imaging unit 140 in the non-gravity state, and the moving position of the imaging unit 140 is limited to within the plane of the cone. Thus, the movement operability of the imaging unit 140 is improved at the time of the pivot movement.

The power assist movement and the pivot movement have been described above as the specific example of the purpose of motion according to the present embodiment. The purpose of motion according to the present embodiment is not limited to this example. In the present embodiment, for example, the following purpose of motion can also be implemented.

For example, coordinates of the imaging unit 140 may be set as the purpose of motion so that the position of the imaging unit 140 is fixed at a certain position. In this case, for example, when force is applied from the outside to the components other than the imaging unit 140 of the arm unit 120, it is possible to set the purpose of motion and the constraint condition so that the joint unit 130 and the link are also fixed at a certain position and not moved, and it is possible to set the purpose of motion and the constraint condition so that the joint unit 130 and the link are moved according to the applied external force, but the position of the imaging unit 140 is fixed. In the latter case, for example, when the arm unit 120 interferes with a task and is desired to be moved, control of a high degree of freedom of moving the positions and postures of the other components of the arm unit 120 in the state in which an image captured by the imaging unit 140 is fixed is implemented.

Further, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition may be set so that a movement of stopping driving of the arm unit 120 immediately is implemented, for example, when the arm unit 120 detects contact with a person or a thing while being driven. By performing such a movement, it is possible to reduce a risk of the arm unit 120 colliding with a person or object. Further, when the arm unit 120 comes into contact with a person or object, for example, the joint state detecting unit 132 may detect the contact according to a change in the external torque applied to the joint unit 130.

Further, for example, the purpose of motion may be set so that the imaging unit 140 moves along a certain trajectory in the space. Specifically, coordinates of points indicating the certain trajectory may be set as the purpose of motion. By setting the purpose of motion as described above, the movable range of the imaging unit 140 is limited to the trajectory. Further, by setting the speed of the imaging unit 140, times at which the imaging unit 140 passes through the points, or the like as the purpose of motion together with the coordinates of the points indicating the trajectory, automated driving by which the imaging unit 140 automatically moves along a certain trajectory at a certain timing can also be performed. The driving control according to such a motion setting is effective, for example, when the robot arm apparatus 10 repeatedly performs a certain task automatically.

Further, for example, the purpose of motion and the constraint condition may be set so that a movement of preventing the arm unit 120 from invading a certain region in the space is implemented. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, in the present embodiment, the user performs surgery while viewing the display screen. Thus, if the arm unit 120 is positioned in a region between the user and the display screen, the user's field of vision is blocked, and thus the surgery efficiency is likely to be lowered. Thus, for example, by setting the region between the user and the display screen as an invasion prohibition region of the arm unit 120, the surgery efficiency can be improved.

Here, when the invasion prohibition region is set to the arm unit 120 as described above, it is preferable that the degrees of freedom of the arm unit 120 be more than the 6 degrees of freedom. This is because degrees of freedom after the 6 degrees of freedom can be used as redundant degrees of freedom, and thus it is possible to secure driving of the 6 degrees of freedom while dealing with the invasion prohibition region or the like. A configuration of a robot arm apparatus including an arm unit having more degrees of freedom than the 6 degrees of freedom will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 12.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an external appearance of a modified example having a redundant degree of freedom in a robot arm apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The same coordinate axes as the directions defined in FIG. 5 are illustrated in FIG. 12.

Referring to FIG. 12, a robot arm apparatus 450 according to the present modified example includes a base unit 460 and an arm unit 470. Further, the arm unit 470 includes a plurality of joint units 471 a to 471 g, a plurality of links 472 a to 472 d connecting the joint units 471 a to 471 g with one another, and an imaging unit 473 installed at the front edge of the arm unit 470. Here, the robot arm apparatus 450 illustrated in FIG. 12 corresponds to a configuration in which the degrees of freedom of the arm unit 470 are increased by one compared to the robot arm apparatus 400 described above with reference to FIG. 5. Thus, the functions and configurations of the base unit 460, each of the joint units 471 a to 471 g and the links 472 a to 472 d, and the imaging unit 473 are similar to the functions and configurations of the base unit 410, each of the joint units 421 a to 421 f and the links 422 a to 422 c, and the imaging unit 423 of the robot arm apparatus 400 described above with reference to FIG. 5, and thus a detailed description thereof is omitted. The following description will proceed focusing on a configuration of the arm unit 470 serving as a difference with the robot arm apparatus 400.

The robot arm apparatus 450 according to the present embodiment includes the 7 joint units 471 a to 471 g, and 7 degrees of freedom are implemented with regard to driving of the arm unit 470. Specifically, one end of the link 472 a is connected with the base unit 460, and the other end of the link 472 a is connected with one end of the link 472 b through the joint unit 421 a. Further, the other end of the link 422 b is connected with one end of the link 472 c through the joint units 471 b and 471 c. Furthermore, the other end of the link 472 c is connected with one end of the link 472 d through the joint units 471 d and 471 e, and the other end of 472 d is connected with the imaging unit 473 through the joint units 471 f and 471 g. As described above, the arm unit 470 extending from the base unit 460 is configured such that the base unit 460 serves as a support point, and the ends of the plurality of links 472 a to 472 d are connected with one another through the joint units 471 a to 471 g.

Further, as illustrated in FIG. 12, the joint units 471 a, 471 c, 471 e, and 471 g are installed such that the long axis direction of the links 472 b to 472 d connected thereto and the photographing direction of the imaging unit 473 connected thereto are set as the rotary axis direction, and the joint units 471 b, 471 d, and 471 f are installed such that the x axis direction serving as a direction in which connection angles of the links 472 c and 472 d and the imaging unit 473 connected thereto are changed within the y-z plane is set as the rotary axis direction. As described above, in the present modified example, the joint units 471 a, 471 c, 471 e, and 471 g have a function of performing yawing, and the joint units 471 b, 471 d, and 471 f have a function of performing pitching.

As the arm unit 470 has the above configuration, in the robot arm apparatus 450 according to the present embodiment, the 7 degrees of freedom are implemented with regard to driving of the arm unit 470, and thus it is possible to freely move the imaging unit 473 within the space in the movable range of the arm unit 470, and the redundant degree of freedom is provided. In FIG. 12, similarly to FIG. 5, a hemisphere is illustrated as an example of the movable range of the imaging unit 473. When the central point of the hemisphere is the photographing center of the medical procedure part photographed by the imaging unit 473, the medical procedure part can be photographed at various angles by moving the imaging unit 473 on the spherical surface of the hemisphere in a state in which the photographing center of the imaging unit 473 is fixed to the central point of the hemisphere. Since the robot arm apparatus 450 according to the present embodiment has one redundant degree of freedom, it is possible to limit the movement of the imaging unit 473 to the hemisphere and the trajectory of the arm unit 470, and it is also possible to easily deal with the constraint condition such as the invasion prohibition region. By setting the invasion prohibition region, for example, it is possible to control driving of the arm unit 470 so that the arm unit 470 is not positioned between the monitor on which the image captured by the imaging unit 473 is displayed and the practitioner or the staff, and it is possible to prevent the monitor from being blocked from the view of the practitioner and the staff. Further, as the invasion prohibition region is set, it is possible to control driving of the arm unit 470 so that the arm unit 470 moves while avoiding interference (contact) with the practitioner and the staff or any other device therearound.

5-3. Processing Procedure of Robot Arm Control Method

Next, a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to FIG. 13. FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a robot arm control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The following description will proceed with an example in which the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment is implemented through the configuration of the robot arm control system 1 illustrated in FIG. 9. Thus, the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment may be a medical robot arm control method. Further, in the following description of the processing procedure of the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment, the functions of the respective components of the robot arm control system 1 illustrated in FIG. 9 have already been described above in (5-2-4. Configuration of the robot arm control system), and thus a detailed description thereof is omitted.

Referring to FIG. 13, in the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment, first, in step S801, the joint state detecting unit 132 detects the state of the joint unit 130. Here, the state of the joint unit 130 refers to, for example, the rotational angle, the generated torque and/or the external torque in the joint unit 130.

Then, in step S803, the arm state acquiring unit 241 acquires the arm state based on the state of the joint unit 130 detected in step S801. The arm state refers to a motion state of the arm unit 120, and may be, for example, a position, a speed, or acceleration of each component of the arm unit 120, or force acting on each component of the arm unit 120.

Then, in step S805, the operation condition setting unit 242 sets the purpose of motion and the constraint condition used for the operation in the whole body cooperative control based on the arm state acquired in step S803. Further, the operation condition setting unit 242 may not set the purpose of motion based on the arm state, may set the purpose of motion based on the instruction information on driving of the arm unit 120 which is input, for example, from the input unit 210 by the user, and may use the purpose of motion previously stored in the storage unit 220. Furthermore, the purpose of motion may be set by appropriately combining the above methods. Moreover, the operation condition setting unit 242 may use the constraint condition previously stored in the storage unit 220.

Then, in step S807, the operation for the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics is performed based on the arm state, the purpose of motion, and the constraint condition, and a control value τ_(a) is calculated. The process performed in step S807 may be a series of processes in the virtual force calculating unit 243 and the actual force calculating unit 244 illustrated in FIG. 9, that is, a series of processes described above in (5-2-2. Generalized inverse dynamics).

Then, in step S809, the disturbance estimation value τ_(d) is calculated, the operation for the ideal joint control is performed using the disturbance estimation value τ_(d), and the command value τ is calculated based on the control value τ_(a). The process performed in step S809 may be a series of processes in the ideal joint control unit 250 illustrated in FIG. 9, that is, a series of processes described above in (5-2-3. Ideal joint control).

Lastly, in step S811, the drive control unit 111 controls driving of the joint unit 130 based on the command value τ.

The processing procedure of the robot arm control method according to the present embodiment has been described above with reference to FIG. 13. In the present embodiment, the process of step S801 to step S811 illustrated in FIG. 13 is repeatedly performed while the task using the arm unit 120 is being performed. Thus, in the present embodiment, driving control of the arm unit 120 is continuously performed while the task using the arm unit 120 is being performed.

5-4. Summary of Robot Arm Apparatus According to Whole Body Cooperative

As described above, in the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the arm unit 120 having the multi-link structure in the robot arm apparatus 10 has at least 6 or more degrees of freedom, and driving of each of the plurality of joint units 130 configuring the arm unit 120 is controlled by the drive control unit 111. Further, the medical apparatus is installed at the front edge of the arm unit 120. As driving of each joint unit 130 is controlled as described above, driving control of the arm unit 120 having a high degree of freedom is implemented, and the robot arm apparatus 10 for medical use having high operability for a user is implemented.

More specifically, according to the present embodiment, in the robot arm apparatus 10, the state of the joint unit 130 is detected by the joint state detecting unit 132. Further, in the control device 20, based on the state of the joint unit 130, the purpose of motion, and the constraint condition, various kinds of operations related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics for controlling driving of the arm unit 120 are performed, and torque command value τ serving as the operation result are calculated. Furthermore, in the robot arm apparatus 10, driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled based on the torque command value τ. As described above, in the present embodiment, driving of the arm unit 120 is controlled by the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics. Thus, driving control of the arm unit 120 according to the force control is implemented, and the robot arm apparatus having the high operability for the user is implemented. Further, in the present embodiment, in the whole body cooperative control, for example, control for implementing various kinds of purposes of motion for improving user convenience such as the pivot movement and the power assist movement can be performed. Furthermore, in the present embodiment, for example, various driving units for moving the arm unit 120 manually or through an operation input from a pedal are implemented, and thus user convenience is further improved.

Further, in the present embodiment, the whole body cooperative control and the ideal joint control are applied to driving control of the arm unit 120. In the ideal joint control, a disturbance component such as friction or inertia in the joint unit 130 is estimated, and feedforward control is performed using the estimated disturbance component. Thus, even when there is a disturbance component such as friction, the ideal response can be implemented on driving of the joint unit 130. Thus, small influence of vibration or the like, high-accuracy responsiveness, and high positioning accuracy or stability are implemented in driving control of the arm unit 120.

Further, in the present embodiment, each of the plurality of joint units 130 configuring the arm unit 120 has a configuration suitable for the ideal joint control illustrated in FIG. 6, for example, and the rotational angle, the generated torque and the viscous drag coefficient of each of the joint units 130 can be controlled according to an electric current value. As described above, driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled according to an electric current value, and driving of each of the joint units 130 is controlled according to the whole body cooperative control while detecting the entire state of the arm unit 120, and thus the counter balance is unnecessary, and the small robot arm apparatus 10 is implemented.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to fulfill all capabilities necessary for the robot arm apparatus described above in (5-1. Review of medical robot arm apparatus). Thus, it is possible to perform various kinds of medical procedures more efficiently using the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment and further reduce the fatigue or the burden of the user or the patient.

Further, in the present embodiment, as the arm unit 120 of the robot arm apparatus 10 is driven by the force control, even when the arm unit 120 interferes with or comes into contact with the practitioner, the staff, or the like during driving, the arm unit 120 does not generate larger force than necessary, and the arm unit 120 safely stops. Furthermore, when the interference is resolved, the arm unit 120 is moved up to a desired position according to the set purpose of motion, and the medical procedure is continued. As described above, in the present embodiment, as the force control is used for driving control of the robot arm apparatus 10, higher safety is secured even when the arm unit 120 interferes with something nearby while being driven.

For example, the above embodiment has shown an example in which a front edge unit of an arm unit of a robot arm apparatus is an imaging unit, and a medical procedure part is photographed by the imaging unit during surgery as illustrated in FIG. 4, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example. The robot arm control system 1 according to the present embodiment can be applied even when a robot arm apparatus including a different front edge unit is used for another purpose. For example, the front edge unit may be an endoscope or a laparoscope, and may be any other examination device such as an ultrasonic examination apparatus or a gastrocamera.

For example, for a medical procedure using a gastrocamera, the gastrocamera is inserted into the patient's body, and various procedures are performed using separately inserted surgical tools, such as forceps and an electrosurgical instrument, while observing a picture captured by the gastrocamera. With such a medical procedure method, if the practitioner were able to operate the tools for the procedure directly while operating the gastrocamera with the robot arm, for example, it would be possible for a single person to perform the medical procedure, enabling more efficient medical procedures. However, with typical existing balance arms, from the perspective of operability, it is difficult for a single person to operate the surgical tools by hand and operate the gastrocamera with the robot arm simultaneously. Thus, existing methods require multiple staff members, and it is typical to have one practitioner operate the gastrocamera with the robot arm while another practitioner performs the procedure using surgical tools. However, with a robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment, high operability by whole body cooperative control is realized, as discussed above. In addition, by ideal joint control, high-precision response and high stability with fewer effects such as vibration are realized. Consequently, according to the present embodiment, it becomes possible for a single practitioner to easily operate a gastrocamera for observation with the robot arm apparatus and also operate surgical tools by hand.

Further, the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment may be used for purposes other than medical uses. In the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment, since the high-accuracy responsiveness and the high stability are implemented through the ideal joint control, for example, it is also possible to deal with a task such as processing or assembly of industrial components that has to be performed with a high degree of accuracy.

Further, the above embodiment has been described in connection with the example in which the joint unit of the robot arm apparatus includes a rotation mechanism, and rotary driving of the rotation mechanism is controlled such that driving of the arm unit is controlled, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example. For example, in the robot arm apparatus according to the present embodiment, the link configuring the arm unit may have a mechanism that expands or contracts in an extension direction of the link (such as a hydraulic driving mechanism or a mechanism that drives a ball screw, for example), and the length of the link may be variable. When the length of the link is variable, for example, driving of the arm unit is controlled such that a desired purpose of motion is achieved by the whole body cooperative control in which expansion and contraction of the link is considered in addition to rotation in the joint unit.

Further, the above embodiment has been described in connection with the example in which the degrees of freedom of the arm unit in the robot arm apparatus are the 6 or more degrees of freedom, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example. Further, the description has proceeded with the example in which each of the plurality of joint units configuring the arm unit includes the actuator that supports the ideal joint control, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example. In the present embodiment, various purposes of motion can be set according to the purpose of the robot arm apparatus. Thus, as long as the set purpose of motion can be achieved, the arm unit may have fewer than 6 degrees of freedom, and some of the plurality of joint units configuring the arm unit may be joint units having a general joint mechanism. As described above, in the present embodiment, the arm unit may be configured to be able to achieve the purpose of motion or may be appropriately configured according to the purpose of the robot arm apparatus.

<6. Hardware Configuration>

Next, a hardware configuration of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 according to the present embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 9 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 14. FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary configuration of a hardware configuration of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 mainly include a CPU 901, a ROM 903, and a RAM 905. The robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 further include a host bus 907, a bridge 909, an external bus 911, an interface 913, an input device 915, an output device 917, a storage device 919, a drive 921, a connection port 923, and a communication device 925.

The CPU 901 functions as an arithmetic processing device and a control device, and controls all or some operations of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 according to various kinds of programs recorded in the ROM 903, the RAM 905, the storage device 919, or a removable storage medium 927. The ROM 903 stores a program, an operation parameter, or the like used by the CPU 901. The RAM 905 primarily stores a program used by the CPU 901, a parameter that appropriately changes in execution of a program, or the like. The above-mentioned components are connected with one another by the host bus 907 configured with an internal bus such as a CPU bus. The CPU 901 corresponds to, for example, the joint control unit 135, the arm control unit 110 and the control unit 230 illustrated in FIG. 9 in the present embodiment.

The host bus 907 is connected to the external bus 911 such as a peripheral component interconnect/interface (PCI) bus through the bridge 909. Further, the input device 915, the output device 917, the storage device 919, the drive 921, the connection port 923, and the communication device 925 are connected to the external bus 911 via the interface 913.

The input device 915 is an operating unit used by the user such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, a button, a switch, a lever, or a pedal. For example, the input device 915 may be a remote control unit (a so-called remote controller) using infrared light or any other radio waves, and may be an external connection device 929 such as a mobile telephone or a PDA corresponding to an operation of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. Further, for example, the input device 915 is configured with an input control circuit that generates an input signal based on information input by the user using the operating unit, and outputs the input signal to the CPU 901. The user of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 can input various kinds of data to the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 or instruct the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 to perform a processing operation by operating the input device 915. For example, the input device 915 corresponds to the input unit 210 illustrated in FIG. 9 in the present embodiment. Further, in the present embodiment, the purpose of motion in driving of the arm unit 120 may be set by an operation input through the input device 915 by the user, and the whole body cooperative control may be performed according to the purpose of motion.

The output device 917 is configured with a device capable of visually or acoustically notifying the user of the acquired information. As such a device, there are a display device such as a CRT display device, a liquid crystal display device, a plasma display device, an EL display device or a lamp, an audio output device such as a speaker or a headphone, a printer device, and the like. For example, the output device 917 outputs a result obtained by various kinds of processes performed by the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. Specifically, the display device displays a result obtained by various kinds of processes performed by the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 in the form of text or an image. Meanwhile, the audio output device converts an audio signal including reproduced audio data, acoustic data, or the like into an analogue signal, and outputs the analogue signal. In the present embodiment, various kinds of information related to driving control of the arm unit 120 may be output from the output device 917 in all forms. For example, in driving control of the arm unit 120, the trajectory of movement of each component of the arm unit 120 may be displayed on the display screen of the output device 917 in the form of a graph. Further, for example, the display device 30 illustrated in FIG. 9 may be a device including the function and configuration of the output device 917 serving as the display device and a component such as a control unit for controlling driving of the display device.

The storage device 919 is a data storage device configured as an exemplary storage unit of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. For example, the storage device 919 is configured with a magnetic storage unit device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a semiconductor storage device, an optical storage device, a magneto optical storage device, or the like. The storage device 919 stores a program executed by the CPU 901, various kinds of data, and the like. For example, the storage device 919 corresponds to the storage unit 220 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 11 in the present embodiment. Further, in the present embodiment, the storage device 919 may store the operation condition (the purpose of motion and the constraint condition) in the operation related to the whole body cooperative control using the generalized inverse dynamics, and the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 may perform the operation related to the whole body cooperative control using the operation condition stored in the storage device 919.

The drive 921 is a recording medium reader/writer, and is equipped in or attached to the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. The drive 921 reads information stored in the removable storage medium 927 mounted thereon such as a magnetic disk, an optical disc, a magneto optical disc, or a semiconductor memory, and outputs the read information to the RAM 905. Further, the drive 921 can write a record in the removable storage medium 927 mounted thereon such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto optical disk, or a semiconductor memory. For example, the removable storage medium 927 is a DVD medium, an HD-DVD medium, a Blu-ray (a registered trademark) medium, or the like. Further, the removable storage medium 927 may be a Compact Flash (CF) (a registered trademark), a flash memory, a Secure Digital (SD) memory card, or the like. Furthermore, for example, the removable storage medium 927 may be an integrated circuit (IC) card equipped with a non-contact type IC chip, an electronic device, or the like. In the present embodiment, various kinds of information related to driving control of the arm unit 120 is read from various kinds of removable storage media 927 or written in various kinds of removable storage media 927 through the drive 921.

The connection port 923 is a port for connecting a device directly with the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20. As an example of the connection port 923, there are a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, an IEEE1394 port, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) port, and the like. As another example of the connection port 923, there are an RS-232C port, an optical audio terminal, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) (a registered trademark), and the like. As the external connection device 929 is connected to the connection port 923, the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 acquire various kinds of data directly from the external connection device 929 or provide various kinds of data to the external connection device 929. In the present embodiment, various kinds of information related to driving control of the arm unit 120 may be read from various kinds of external connection devices 929 or written in various kinds of external connection devices 929 through the connection port 923.

For example, the communication device 925 is a communication interface configured with a communication device used for a connection with a communication network (network) 931. For example, the communication device 925 is a communication card for a wired or wireless local area network (LAN), Bluetooth (a registered trademark), or wireless USB (WUSB). Further, the communication device 925 may be an optical communication router, an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) router, various kinds of communication modems, or the like. For example, the communication device 925 can transmit or receive a signal to or from the Internet or another communication device, for example, according to a certain protocol such as TCP/IP. Further, the communication network 931 connected to the communication device 925 is configured with a network connected in a wired or wireless manner, and may be, for example, the Internet, a domestic LAN, infrared ray communication, radio wave communication, satellite communication, or the like. In the present embodiment, various kinds of information related to driving control of the arm unit 120 may be transmitted or received to or from an external device via the communication network 931 through the communication device 925.

The hardware configuration capable of implementing the functions of the robot arm apparatus 10 and the control device 20 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure has been described above. Each of the above components may be configured using a versatile member, and may be configured by hardware specialized for the function of each component. Thus, the hardware configuration to be used may be appropriately changed according to a technology level when the present embodiment is carried out. Further, although not illustrated in FIG. 14, the robot arm apparatus 10 obviously includes various kinds of components corresponding to the arm unit 120 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 9.

Further, it is possible to create a computer program for implementing the functions of the robot arm apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, the control device 20, and the display device 30 and install the computer program in a personal computer or the like. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a computer readable recording medium storing the computer program as well. Examples of the recording medium include a magnetic disk, an optical disc, a magneto optical disc, and a flash memory. Further, for example, the computer program may be delivered via a network without using the recording medium.

<7. Supplement>

The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, whilst the present disclosure is not limited to the above examples, of course. A person skilled in the art may find various alterations and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that they will naturally come under the technical scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, the effects described in the present specification are merely illustrative and demonstrative, and not limitative. In other words, the technology according to the present disclosure can exhibit other effects that are evident to those skilled in the art along with or instead of the effects based on the present specification.

Additionally, the present technology may also be configured as below.

(1)

A robot arm apparatus including:

an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; and

a drive control unit that controls driving of the arm unit by causing each joint unit to be driven cooperatively, wherein

the drive control unit uses relative position information of a reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on a state of the arm unit and distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and the reference position, to control the driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

(2)

The robot arm apparatus according to (1), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a control value for cooperative control of the arm unit, the control value being based on a state of the arm unit acquired based on a plurality of states of the joint unit.

(3)

The robot arm apparatus according to (2), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a control value for whole body cooperative control of the arm unit according to generalized inverse dynamics using a state of the arm unit acquired based on a plurality of detected states of the joint unit, and a purpose of motion and a constraint condition of the arm unit.

(4)

The robot arm apparatus according to (3), wherein the control value is computed based on a virtual force acting to achieve the purpose of motion in an operation space describing a relationship between a force acting on the arm unit and an acceleration produced in the arm unit, and also based on an actual force by which the virtual force drives the joint unit based on the constraint condition.

(5)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (4), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a command value computed by correcting influence of a disturbance on the control value.

(6)

The robot arm apparatus according to (5), wherein

the command value is computed by correcting the control value using a disturbance estimation value expressing influence of a disturbance on driving of the joint unit estimated based on a detected state of the joint unit.

(7)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (6), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a constraint condition that the reference position is positioned on the optical axis of the imaging unit, and thereby controls driving of the arm unit so as to perform a pivot operation in which the reference position serves as an apex of the pivot in a state in which the imaging unit is pointed at the reference position.

(8)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (6), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a constraint condition that a certain point on the optical axis of the imaging unit is locked to the reference position, and thereby controls driving of the arm unit so as to perform a pivot operation centered on the reference position in a state in which the imaging unit is pointed at the reference position.

(9)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (6), wherein

the driving control unit controls driving of the joint unit based on a constraint condition that a position and an orientation of the arm unit are locked, and thereby controls driving of the arm unit so as to perform an operation to lock the imaging unit at a certain position in a state in which the imaging unit is pointed at a certain point.

(10)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (6), wherein

the drive control unit controls driving of the joint unit in a manner that a position and an orientation of the arm unit are arbitrarily variable according to operating input from a user.

(11)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (6), wherein

the drive control unit controls driving of the arm unit so as to perform

-   -   a pivot operation in which the reference position serves as an         apex of the pivot in a state in which the imaging unit is         pointed at the reference position,     -   an operation to lock the imaging unit at a certain position in a         state in which the imaging unit is pointed at a certain point,         or     -   an operation in which a position and an orientation of the arm         unit are arbitrarily variable according to operating input from         a user.

(12)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (1) to (11), wherein

the distance between the imaging unit and the reference position is acquired based on a focal length of the imaging unit.

(13)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (1) to (12), wherein

each of a plurality of the joint unit includes a joint state detecting unit that detects a state of the joint unit, and

the joint state detecting unit includes at least

-   -   a torque detecting unit that detects a generated torque in the         joint unit and an external torque applied from an outside to the         joint unit, and     -   a rotational angle detecting unit that detects a rotational         angle of the joint unit.

(14)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (2) to (11), wherein

the control value is a generated torque in the joint unit.

(15)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (1) to (14), further including:

the imaging unit.

(16)

The robot arm apparatus according to any one of (1) to (15), wherein

the imaging unit is a camera used for a medical procedure.

(17)

A robot arm control method including:

acquiring a state of an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit;

acquiring distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and a reference position; and

using relative position information of the reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on the state of the arm unit and the distance information, to cause each joint unit to be driven cooperatively based on the arm state and thereby control driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

(18)

A program causing a processor of a computer to realize:

a function of acquiring a state of an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit;

a function of acquiring distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and a reference position; and

a function of using relative position information of the reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on the state of the arm unit and the distance information, to cause each joint unit to be driven cooperatively based on the arm state and thereby control driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   1 robot arm control system -   10 robot arm apparatus -   20 control device -   30 display device -   110 arm control unit -   111 drive control unit -   120 arm unit -   130 joint unit -   131 joint driving unit -   132 rotational angle detecting unit -   133 torque detecting unit -   135 joint control unit -   140 imaging unit -   210 input unit -   220 storage unit -   230 control unit -   240 whole body cooperative control unit -   241 arm state acquiring unit -   242 operation condition setting unit -   243 virtual force calculating unit -   244 actual force calculating unit -   250 ideal joint control unit -   251 disturbance estimating unit -   252 command value calculating unit -   260 reference position deriving unit -   261 distance information acquiring unit -   262 relative position computing unit 

1. A robot arm apparatus comprising: an arm unit made up of a plurality of links joined to each other by one or a plurality of a joint unit, the arm unit being connectable to an imaging unit; and a drive control unit that controls driving of the arm unit by causing each joint unit to be driven cooperatively, wherein the drive control unit uses relative position information of a reference position with respect to the arm unit, the relative position information being based on a state of the arm unit and distance information about a distance between the imaging unit and the reference position, to control the driving of the arm unit in a manner that the reference position is positioned on an optical axis of the imaging unit. 